Courier Six, Izuku Midoriya
by ComradeChicken
Summary: Inspired by Soulofnone911. After being transported to the Mojave, Izuku Midoriya begins a new life as the courier. After being whisked back to Japan and UA, he finds himself feeling differently about the way hero society works.
1. Chapter 1

**This story was inspired by Soulofnone911. I'm not sure how much I like it so far.**

All Midoriya could really focus on at that moment was the immense headache. A brown, disgusting ceiling stared back at him. A foul stench entered his nose as he tried to recollect where he was, but nothing was particularly clear to him.

"Ah, you're finally awake. How are you feeling?" a voice to Midoriya's left spoke. His eyes focused on the figure of an older man. He seemed genuinely concerned about him, which for some reason, felt wrong.

"No, honestly. I feel like shit," he answered honestly. His voice felt hoarse.

"Yeah, I can imagine. It's not easy to recover from a bullet to the head."

That would explain the splitting headache that he was currently enduring. "You got any idea how that happened?"

"I'm 'fraid not. Victor's the one that brought you in to town. Said he found you out in the graveyard. You must have had some kind of vendetta against you."

Faint memories drifted in and out of Midoriya's head. Some recent, some of a distant past. How long had he even been in the Mojave? He didn't know. A year or two?

"I did the best I could to reconstruct your face, but you be the judge," the man said after holding up a mirror to Izuku's face. Disheveled green hair and matching eyes stared back at him through the broken, dirtied mirror. The eyes he wore were droopy compared to the wide ones he used to have, but that wasn't the doctor's fault. After being transported from Japan to the Mojave after some freak Quirk accident, his prospects of a return trip seemed to get slimmer and slimmer. Eventually, all hope dissipated.

What was a Quirk again? His mind registered the word, and something about it felt familiar, but he couldn't quite think of a definition.

No, he knew what that was. He had one, he was sure. Although it seemed quite hazy as to what it was, he didn't have any intentions of using it. From what he remembered, it didn't fare well on his body. Naturally, he was more adept at using a gun nowadays.

He tried to purge the thought from his mind. The more he tried to remember, the worse his headache grew. It he could just focus on what was in front of him, then that would fare better for him. "Everything seems fine. Thank you, you did a good job."

"Let me help you get on your way," the doctor offered. Izuku Midoriya accepted the help, at the very least to get back on his feet and continue his journey.

* * *

It wasn't like he meant to use his nameless Quirk. Izuku's ranger armor was buckling fast under fire from the super mutants. His hand fumbled with the stimpak, nearly missing its mark in his arm. The moment the drug-like substance hit his system, a power within his bones activated against his will. Insurmountable power willed its way into his arms, and without even thinking, he used it to his advantage. The power fist he had strapped to his arm soared forward into the stomach of an approaching super mutant. As the fist connected with the ugly, mutated skin of the monster, its muscles and flesh blew apart. Blood splattered across Midoriya's face and armor. The sudden death of the mutant caused the other two super mutants to immediately retreat, but Izuku was just as surprised as they were.

He stared at his bloody fist beneath the gear. He tried not to focus on his past, instead choosing to narrow his goals upon the Mojave. Finding the platinum chip was one goal, getting back to Japan was another. Now, however, he was forcibly reminded that he was different from everyone else. Sure, he knew he wasn't from the Mojave, but something about that world was too different. As Izuku stared at his fist, the Quirk that his idol, All Might, gave him reared itself once again. Maybe it was because it was desperate to be used, maybe it was Midoriya who accidentally activated it. Either way, he couldn't help but remember the circumstances leading to him acquiring that power. Everything else around it was still unclear, but One for All, at the least, came springing back into his memory.

If anything, it would be useful in battle. Midoriya brushed his gear off as best as he could before switching weapons. The plasma rifle he managed to loot fit perfectly in his hands, a small comfort he had in the bleak Mojave wasteland.

* * *

And so Midoriya had the platinum chip. But what was the cost of such a deed? Back home, in Japan, he would never even fathom killing another human being. Now, the corpse of Benny laid on the floor next to him. And nobody would care. It was by his hands that a human had died, and nobody would care who did it. It would just be a normal day.

He gripped the chip in his palm, spinning it fiercely between his fingers but never letting go. The other hand held the pistol that ended the life of a man. Why did he need that chip in the first place, though?

Because some wackjob entrusted him in the first place to deliver it to someone, that's why. How did his life end up like this? In the back of his mind, he knew he should have been looking for a way to get back to Japan. Instead, here he was, killing people in order to get some stupid casino chip back.

No matter how much gear and experience, or how many scars, he'd acquired, none of it was going to help him get back to Japan.

But then again, what exactly could he do?

He tightened his grip on the pistol. It was a standard 10mm, but now it was a murder weapon. That gun had its barrel pointed at another person as its trigger was pulled, and the bullet it once housed caused the death of a man.

And Midoriya was the one to pull the trigger.

* * *

A bullet landed itself in Midoriya's shoulder. The legionnaire who fired it soon met his end at the hand of an NCR soldier.

He gritted his teeth as he tried to reload his plasma rifle. The idea of facing off against people made him uneasy, but if it were for the right cause, then he would do it. After all, it was for the best. There weren't enough resources in the wasteland to provide for that many people, anyway. Already, especially in Freeside, people were starving. If Midoriya could help any one of them, then it was worth it.

That's what he convinced himself of, anyway. The "death is the only solution" motto of the wasteland was starting to ingrain itself inside his mind.

So each shot fired from his rifle faithfully hit it's target. Rarely any of his targets were survivors. Green, glowing globs splattered the Hoover Dam.

It wasn't that he didn't share his fair share of damage, however. Multiple stimpaks were used just to make Izuku move. Blood, both his and others, was splattered across his duster. It became too ravaged for him to tote around, so he shrugged it off his shoulders. The same went for his helmet, which he could barely breath in anymore. His unruly hair stuck out every which way. Granted, he had cut it a bit to get out of his way. Nonetheless, it was not something that he could just tame.

Midoriya jammed another stimpak between the plates of armor on his arm. The metal breastplate that he wore seemed to be doing its job perfectly well against the hoard of Legion soldiers. Still, blood still leaked out of some of the bullet holes that decorated his skin Lucky for him, stimpaks acted like an anesthetic of sorts. After using a good many in the battle, he could barely feel anything in his body anymore.

Then, after what felt like hours of fighting, it was finally over. Izuku looked at the littering of dead bodies around him. It should have been a horrifying sight to him, but somehow it just felt normal. After facing ghouls, deathclaws, and everything in between, nothing about the Mojave seemed to surprise Midoriya anymore.

And soon after that, everything went blank.

* * *

He was falling, that was for sure. It was a familiar sensation. He'd gone through it once before, right after falling into that portal from that villain. Soon after, he found himself in the middle of a desert. With barely any kind of protection, it was a miracle that he survived. If not for the Mojave express taking him in, he would have died within the first 24 hours of his arrival in the post apocalypse.

And this time, it was as if he were going back in time. In fact, he was sure of it. The blackness that enveloped him threw him onto the ground in a very familiar building. Sunlight poured in through the glass ceiling above. It was pristine, save for a few panes. It looked as though something large passed through.

Slowly, he forced his body upward. The anesthetic from the stimpaks was starting to fade, and each bullet wound was shooting him pain signals. He could use another stimpak, but that would only be prolonging the issue. He would need to remove the bullets in his body before he could fully heal. Besides, stimpaks had a tenacity to work _too_ well, and he didn't want the bullets to be buried in his skin and muscle.

"Hey, are you okay?" someone shouted at him. It was a red haired boy, somewhat familiar to him. He couldn't quite place a name.

Izuku sneered. Of course he wasn't okay, couldn't he see the sorry state of his body?

Despite the pain coursing through his body, he forced himself to his feet. This place, wherever he was, was too familiar. And the people occupying it, even if they hadn't noticed him quite yet, all seemed to ring some kind of bell within him. He just didn't know what it was.

"Wait, Midoriya?" the kid shouted at him again. Maybe he shouldn't have called him kid, they were probably about the same age. Still, it didn't surprise him too much that he knew his name.

But he wasn't the only one that knew that name. Everyone in the vicinity turned their heads, only to swarm him. They looked him up and down, telling him that he was seriously injured and should sit down. They told him that they didn't know where he went, but they were glad that he was back. But hey, what was he wearing? His hair was different, they kept saying. And he wasn't wearing armor before, was he? And what was that green thing strapped to his back?

He couldn't name a single person that tried speaking to him.

"I'm fine," he insisted, pushing them away from him. He could barely breath around them. "And who are you people, anyway?"

Silence overcame the crowd. They were his age, he could tell that much at least. And they all wore the same outfit, one that he remembered himself wearing at one point or another.

"How could you forget us, dude?" the red haired one asked.

"I mean…you seem familiar. Everything is still pretty hazy. What's your name?"

"Kirishima," the boy answered. His eyes had some sort of sadness in them, but he didn't know what that meant.

"Kirishima…" he rolled the name around in his mouth. "You're…you have a Quirk….that makes your skin hard? Right?"

He nodded fervently. "That's right."

"Deku…do you really not remember us?" a girl asked him. Now, that was an interesting name. The girl had short brown hair and bright pink cheeks.

She seemed very familiar. Short memories of her floated through his head, but it was too fast for him to process. "I need to sit down," he said as he turned away from everyone, blatantly ignoring her question. There wasn't a clear answer that he could give. Obviously, he knew them at one point. But after having such a traumatic injury to the brain like he had, it was hard for him to recall certain things. The path he walked in the Divide certainly proved that much.

He knew he was in Japan, that much was clear. This was his home, the one that he was torn away from over a year ago. In this world, superheroes existed. They had Quirks, and that was like a person's super power. His Quirk was One for All. It was given to him by All Might. Speaking of, some of the other people in the room were other heroes. He used to look up to them at one point. And he wanted to be one of them, so he went to a school to become one. So those young people…they must have been his classmates.

It was only about two years ago. Only two years, and yet it felt like fifty. Even if he didn't remember everything, he suddenly felt a sense of home. Of self.

"Midoriya-" someone spoke to him. He should have expected it, but since he was so deep in thought, it spooked him. Having been living in the Mojave for so long, his brain trained itself to always assume something like that was an enemy. He snatched his 10mm off of his hip and aimed it at the person who spoke.

Quickly, he realized that that wasn't necessary. A man with long blond hair had his hands up. What looked like a small speaker system was wrapped around his neck. This used to be one of his teachers, right?

He holstered the gun. "Sorry," he apologized. "Sit down if you want."

The man gulped. "Sure."

"You were one of my teachers, right? Present Mic."

The man nodded. "I _am_ one of your teachers, more accurately. Midoriya, what happened to you after you were teleported away?"

"I was taken to the Mojave. I'm surprised that you still remember that, because I barely do," he answered to the best of his ability. He didn't remember too much about that day, either. Just that when he came to in the Mojave, his arm was injured enough for the Primm Mojave Outpost owner to take pity upon him.

"What do you mean by remember?"

That seemed like a stupid question. "That was nearly two years ago."

The man shook his head. "That can't be right."

Izuku scowled. He was already confused enough as it was. "What?"

"Midoriya, you've only been missing for half an hour."


	2. Chapter 2

**First off, I'd like to say thank you to everyone for the overwhelming response that came after I published this story. Unfortunately, I must admit, that does give me a fair bit of anxiety. I had this chapter written up for a bit, but I've been a little nervous to publish it. Overall, I don't want to give people high expectations for this story. I'm not entirely sure how much I like it myself, but I at least have a few more chapters worth of ideas. Still, don't get me wrong, I appreciate everyone who decided to read my little story. Thank you!**

 **And then another thanks to Soulofnone911 for the idea. If anyone else wants to check out their profile, they are welcoming other people to use their idea(s).**

The cleanliness of the room made Midoriya uncomfortable. The sterile atmosphere made everything seem wrong. His bullets had been removed and he'd been wrapped up tightly, much against his own will. After talking with a few of the heroes, they'd stripped him of his gear and forced him into a hospital. They even wrestled his Pip-Boy off his wrist, which he felt naked without. Had he not been in shock from the words that escaped Present Mic's mouth, he probably would have been able to resist it. However, everything after that felt like a blur to him. His body and mind numbed as he thought of the two years that suddenly didn't mean anything.

He stared into the popcorn ceiling of the hospital room. A few feet to his right, there was another man. His name was All Might, that much was clear to him. He wasn't in the greatest condition himself, but he seemed more worried about Midoriya than anything else.

"Midoriya…so what happened?" the skeletal man asked him. It was better than him asking if he were alright, which was what everyone else seemed to be doing.

"I was in the Mojave," he answered carefully. After living there for two years, he found it difficult to slip back into his native tongue.

"What is that? The desert in America?" Of course, All Might spent some of his time as a hero in the United States. Midoriya didn't doubt that he would know some places there.

"Almost," he answered, trying to think of the best way to explain it. How could he explain it in terms that wouldn't cause an uproar? He was sure to keep his story to a minimum in order to reduce the panic surrounding it. Only a few people knew that he'd been gone for two years, although he suspected that many of them knew it had been longer that the half hour he'd been missing here. On top of that, he didn't care to explain the weapons or drugs that he had on him. Slowly, he would explain it to them. As for now, he was trying to keep information to a minimum.

"And they tell me that you have amnesia…" All Might trailed off.

Yes, Midoriya supposed that it was like amnesia. Still, he remembered some things. Just not others. What kind of amnesia was that? He couldn't remember. "Yeah, I do," he answered for simplicity sake.

"Were you in an accident?"

"No, it was probably because I was shot in the head," he answered.

All Might shot up in bed. "You were _what_?"

Izuku knew that he probably should have kept that one to himself. However, it just proved his point. If just knowing that he was shot in the head caused this much stress on the man, then there was no way he could just explain everything right then and there. He needed time and the right moment to explain things.

Overall, however, he didn't want to lie to anyone. No matter how the wasteland affected him, it would not tear down his honesty. "I was shot in the head. Nothing before that is very clear to me. I don't recognize a lot of my classmates, however, I do remember you."

"Why were you shot?" he asked him. Izuku nearly scoffed at the idea. Why had he only been shot once was the real question, but he couldn't expect All Might to understand that.

"I had something that someone else wanted, so they tried to kill me to get it."

"What did you have?" All Might asked.

Izuku nearly pulled the chip off of the table to his left. He stopped himself, though, just before the glinting chip could be seen. If he showed that to All Might, he would start asking questions about it. He wasn't stupid, so he would know it was more than just a poker chip. And then he would try to pry the answer out of him after that, and then what was he supposed to say? His options were limited.

"Nothing important here," he said, which wasn't wrong. The platinum chip had no value in this world. That, and All Might understood that Midoriya was done answering questions for the day.

* * *

The room was small and cramped. A single metal table sat in the middle with opposing metal chairs. A one-way mirror looked into the room. This room surely wasn't meant for him, but it made him feel like a criminal.

He sat in one of the metal chairs, which was beyond uncomfortable. In front of him, spread across the table, were some of his most valued possessions. He noticed that they emptied the clip on his 10mm, but left the plasma rifle alone. It was either because they didn't know it was a gun, or because they didn't want to accidentally fire the thing. Besides the two weapons, various drugs lined the tables. Stimpaks, med-x, rad-x, and rad away took up the vast majority of the space. A few mentats and buffouts were there, but Izuku wasn't too fond of using them. The side effects were worse than the temporary boost, he reasoned. Still, it was easy pickings for making caps on the side. Which, speaking of, his large sack of bottle caps sat on the corner of the table. Finally, his stealth suit was neatly folded with his respirator and Pip-Boy on top. He would have to figure out a way to get the suit back, at the very least. He worked hard on calibrating that damn thing.

Across the table, there was a man. He looked to be a police officer. Midoriya would have to be on his best behavior. "Izuku Midoriya," he addressed him as he sat down in the opposing chair. "I'm sorry for the cold entrance, but we didn't want any of this stuff leaving the room. We don't want to think of you as a criminal. However, you were in possession of a gun, which is an offense in the court of law. We have the right to arrest you, but we are choosing to overlook it because of the circumstances. In return, we are confiscating most of this, and we expect you to explain to us what many of these things are."

This would be hard for Midoriya, but if he were with this stranger, then that would make things easier. A police officer would have the most clear-headed response to his claims, and it would be unlikely that he would speak about this outside of the case. In contrast, if Midoriya told anyone close to him, they'd immediately try to coddle and comfort him, which he did not want.

"That seems fair," he answered after nodding his head.

"First of all, I need you to explain where you were."

Of course, they started with the hard one. "I was in the Mojave wasteland. As far as I am aware, it was not on this world."

The police officer leaned forward. There were traces of doubt behind his eyes, but he was a professional. Besides, in this world of Quirks, it would be hard to doubt something like that. "Explain what you mean by that."

"In that world, there was a war that took place two hundred years prior. As a result, the world was turned into a wasteland. Mutated creatures and cold-blooded humans were left to roam. That, and there seemed to be a lack of Quirk's in that world."

"And so what did you need a gun for?"

"Defense. Like I told All Might, I was already shot in the head once. And I'm sure you noticed that I have quite a few scars now."

"About that. In our time, according to numerous eye witness reports, your disappearance lasted half an hour. However, according to your own report, you have been gone for about two years?"

"That's right," Midoriya nodded, confirming his story with the police officer.

"What triggered your return to this world?"

That, Izuku thought, was not something that he had ever considered. Obviously he got to the Mojave after falling into that villain's portal. However, no such thing would have existed in the Mojave. "The NCR had just won the second Battle of Hoover Dam. When I stood up, everything went dark, and then I was back here."

"It might be possible that the same villain that sent you there was able to retrieve you."

Midoriya placed his hand on his chin. "Perhaps. However, the timing doesn't seem right. The finality of such a battle seems far too coincidental for it to be that villain. I think that something I did triggered my return. It seems far more likely that the reason for my return was because I had completed my mission."

"You think this had some kind of divine intervention?"

"I'm uncertain. I just would like to think of possible reasons."

"If you do not know, then let's move on. I would like you to explain what these items are."

First, Midoriya picked up the rifle. He might as well get the big one out of the way. "This is a plasma rifle," he said while playing with the mechanics. He had this gun for a while, so each lever and button he pushed on it felt natural. Almost like riding a bike. The cartridge popped out of its slot and into his hand. He placed them down separately. "It's an immensely powerful weapon. Sometimes, it won't even leave a body behind."

The police officer had a pretty good poker face. Still, Midoriya saw his muscles twitch. He was scared of it, and scared that Izuku knew exactly how to use it. Plus, he never said that he killed anyone with it, but it was implied. "Besides those two guns, the other thing that kept me alive were these drugs." He picked up the long, metal needle. "This is a stimpak. They increase healing in the body and have a slight anesthetic to them. These pills, Med-X and Rad-X, help prevent damage to the body either through physical durability or the ability to deter radiation."

"And this one…?" the police officer pointed to the bag of Rad-Away. It looked like a blood bag with a rusty needle on the end of it.

"This clears radiation from the body. You have to feed it into the bloodstream for it to take effect. These other drugs are intelligence and strength boosters. They're highly addictive, so I never used them."

"And then what is this," the police office pointed at the Pip-Boy.

"It's a personal computer system. I used it as a GPS, inventory keeper, health monitor, radio, and Geiger counter."

"We tried to access it, but it didn't seem to be in working condition."

"That's because it has a bio-lock on it. It won't work unless it recognized my DNA. Watch," Izuku said as he strapped the Pip-Boy back onto his arm. Immediately, the screen lit up. The dull brown avatar of the machine smiled back at him. It read his health as in good condition and his radiation levels were at 0. That was a relief.

"Is it a weapon in any way?"

"No, sir. Just a computer."

"If that's the case, then we are allowing you to keep the bottle caps, the suit and respirator, and the…Pip-Boy?"

Midoriya nodded once more. "Thank you, sir."

"You are to return to your classes at UA. However, we will have more questioning for you in the future. Thank you for your cooperation."


	3. Chapter 3

**I'd like to extend another thank you to everyone that had read this far. My biggest concern for this story, honestly, is that I have no idea how to end it. I have a few ideas, but they seem pretty extreme. What would you guys like to see?**

There was a small break before classes at UA started again. From what Midoriya understood, there was growing discontent in the world after the attack. A simple thing like that was another reminder to Izuku how different this world was to the Mojave.

However, before he knew it, he was expected to go to class. From what he remembered, he had worked hard to get into UA. It wasn't easy to do, considering the surplus of people wanting to enter into the hero profession. He still felt that desire, but after two year of being in the wasteland, his motivation had slightly tapered off.

Besides that, he was being swarmed by his fellow classmates. He had sat down at the desk that he vaguely remembered as being his, and then stayed as stoic as possible as they surrounded his desk.

"Whoa, why'd you cut your hair like that?" a yellow haired one asked. Denki was the name that first came to Izuku's mind. It was a fair question. In the wasteland, he found that his hair was getting in the way. Thus, he shaved the sides of his head and trimmed the rest. He found that it was far less likely to get in his face that way.

As much as he wanted to reply with a snide remark about minding their damn business, he had to honor the character that he was two years ago. Even if were just acting, he had to make this far more comfortable for his classmates. "Oh, it was starting to get in my face is all. I thought I would switch it up a little."

He hated how fake his voice sounded. He couldn't afford to have a bubbly personality in the wasteland, so he stripped himself of it. Now, he wasn't sure if that was something that he would ever be able to reclaim. Forcing a smile onto himself only made it seem worse.

"Do you really have amnesia?" a pink girl asked him. She had horns on hop of her head, and nearly completely black eyes. He didn't remember her too much. He probably hadn't talked to her very often.

"Yeah, I guess I do. I remember a lot, but there are missing bits and pieces," he said as he scratched the back of his head. He thought he did a good job of hiding how much it annoyed him.

"What's that thing?" a kid with weird elbows asked him. His body just seemed fundamentally wrong.

"It's like a portable computer," he said as he raised his arm. The Pip-Boy _was_ a bit conspicuous, but he felt naked without it. If he didn't have that in the wasteland, he would have been far worse off. The Geiger counter all by itself was a life saver. Then, he had to admit, he did like the VATS system. He wasn't sure if he would be able to continue to use it in this world, or if it would just slow him down.

"Did you always have that scar on your head?" a croaky voice asked him. Unsurprisingly, it was from the frog-like classmate. Asui. It would make sense that they would be soon to point out the faint scar of a bullet wound on his forehead. It wasn't too noticeable until someone looked close, but they'd known him for a few weeks already. He clearly had more scarring and muscle than he did two years ago. He was just thankful his appearance didn't change much beyond that, or else it would have been much harder to explain.

"That?" he chuckled. "It was an accident, it happened about a year ago."

There was one problem to his bluff. A good majority of his classmates didn't know him a year ago. However, there was one student that had known him his whole life. At the mere thought of it, Midoriya looked ahead of him. A student with spiky blond hair sat there. He had temper issues, something that would have been useful in the wasteland. At least, if he were fighting Super Mutants. Said student was also looking back, but not in the same way that everyone else was looking at him. His face was contorted into an angry scowl.

If Midoriya hadn't lived in the Mojave for two years, then he probably would have frozen up. He used to have a meek personality, despite having such a determined desire to become a hero. However, as he stared back at Bakugo, there was no expression that he could conjure to possibly imitate that. Besides, he didn't have the tolerance to even entertain the idea for him. There was no way that the boy seemed even the least bit scary to Midoriya. He was far too used to people firing missiles at him to fear a kid who could make explosions from his hands.

"Alright everybody, let's begin," a heavily bandaged man said as he entered the room. It would have been better to give him a stimpak then let him suffer like that. Izuku knew why he wasn't healed, it wasn't like he had forgotten everything. The school nurse, Recovery Girl, could only heal people with as much stamina the person had. Obviously, Aizawa was not going to have enough stamina to completely heal himself. An autodoc would have fixed him up much faster.

Izuku had to admit, even with the abundance of superpowers, their society was far behind in technology. A simple injury in the wasteland would take weeks, at the very least, to heal in this superpowered society.

He barely noticed as the students surrounding him returned to their seats. His attention had turned to his homeroom teacher, who had managed to capture the entire room. Although, Midoriya had a feeling it was because of the bandages on his face and the casts on his arms.

"First off, I'd like to make an announcement about the sports festival," he started, which immediately started an explosion of student opinions. Midoriya was careful to stay quiet. He knew what it was: a festival to showcase the powers and abilities of the UA students. With his broken power, he was basically useless. In those two years of being in the Mojave, he rarely used One for All. At least to his benefit, anytime he did, it never broke his bones. That, he figured, must have been due to the stimpak's effect on his body. Still, even without stimpaks, he would have the advantage of having both a replaced heart and spine. Even after going to the hospital, they didn't catch the replaced parts in their x-ray. He had to thank the Big MT for having the knowledge and resources to create something so much better, yet indistinguishable in looks.

"Quiet, everyone," Aizawa continued with only a hint of malice in his voice. His voice barely raised, but the students quieted down anyway. "Despite the concern of the public, the school board, and parents, the sports festival will be hosted next week. This will be your one chance to shine. Pro heroes will be watching, and they may choose to offer you an internship afterwards."

Midoriya knew the spiel. He lived for the UA sports festival, once upon a time. Now, it seemed like an overhyped exhibit of power. In this contest, he would have to restrain himself from seriously hurting his fellow classmates. Normally, when he fought, it was to the death.

"That's all I have to say about the subject," Aizawa finished before starting his lecture. It was hard to focus on him through the bandages, but it wasn't the first time that Izuku had spoken with a man wrapped in them like that. Although he felt bad for the teacher, he had to admit, Joshua Graham had it worse.

* * *

If he were being honest, Midoriya expected the day to go much worse than it did. Save for the beginning of the day, questions were kept to a minimum. It was easy for him to slip back into the daily life of being a student, although it did make him yearn for the days he spent wandering the wasteland.

He slung his bag over his shoulders before exiting the building. But of course, as God willed it, there was another obstacle in his path.

Blond spikey hair and red glaring eyes stopped him in his tracks. He should have expected something like this from the likes of Bakugo. His hot blooded demeanor practically begged for conflict. Calmly, Midoriya approached.

He seemed threatening enough, especially for a high school student, but his attempt at fear mongering was almost laughable. A radroach would probably elicit more fear out of Midoriya than Bakugo could.

"Hey Kacchan," he greeted, which came out somewhat flat. No matter how well he could act around the other students, it just wasn't happening with Bakugo.

"Cut the shit. You might be able to lie to everyone else, but you aren't fooling me."

"I haven't lied today," Midoriya said, which was true. Maybe he didn't tell the entire truth, but he never lied.

Bakugo gritted his teeth together. He acted like a rapid dog, ready to snap at any moment. "You probably think you're better than me, and that I'm some kind of idiot. Don't think that because you changed your look and you got a fancy new toy that you could ever be a great hero."

If only he knew.

Before Midoriya even had a chance to retort, Bakugo turned away. It was just like him to assert dominance without waiting to hear any refutation. Their whole lives, Bakugo grew up with an entourage of people. He had kids following him all the time, and adults fawned over his Quirk. He wasn't used to other people being his equal, or better than him, even. It wasn't necessarily his fault. In fact, he didn't know any other way of living. There was no time in his life where he wasn't ever the top dog.

He was in for a rude awakening.

* * *

Midoriya laid on his back on his bed. He was playing with the settings on his Pip-Boy. First and foremost, he had to calibrate the map system to be able to map and categorize the locations that he traveled most. It wasn't really necessary, but it's what he'd done for about a year. There was no reason to stop.

But beyond that, he started to get restless. He'd always believed in the hero business, and he still did. However, the lesson he had today was only a reminder of how law and order worked in this world. In the wasteland, he'd come to know a different kind of law. Heroes in this world helped, that was certain, but the fact that none of them wanted to dirty their hands only meant that each battle was prolonged. Villains didn't care much, they knew that they wouldn't die in battle. A hero, in this world, would never kill. So each battle was drawn out. In that span of time, more civilians could be injured or killed. Then, because the villain was only thrown in jail for a set period of time, there was so disincentive to other villains.

Basically, this world was too lax. If they refused to dirty their hands, then someone else would have to.

And if that person was him, then so be it.

He rolled off his bed before pulling some belongings out from under it. If he were going to do this, he would be acting _far_ outside of the law. He would need some kind of disguise to prevent him from being identified. The consequences of being discovered would be drastic.

Luckily, he still had a handful of belongings from the Mojave, which would be a great help to him. First, he still had his stealth suit, respirator, and Pip-Boy. The Pip-Boy and respirator would easily identify him if word got to the police, so he would have to leave those items behind. The stealth suit, however, could easily be placed under some armor. If anything, the auto-stimpak function of the suit was his main purpose.

Beyond that, however, he still had some more goods. After being released from the hospital, he snuck into the USJ to see if he could find any clues regarding his arrival. He didn't find any useful information, but he did find some pieces of his armor, and to his delight, even found a dinged-up eyebot by the name of Ed-E. His ranger helmet, duster, and robot were lying off to the side, undiscovered by any of the cleanup crew. He snatched them and hid them. If nobody saw them, then that would be his best disguise. The helmet was dinged up and the duster was covered in blood, but he worked hard to restore them to their previous condition. Ed-E would be the most delicate thing to restore, but he had faith in he robot. Besides, it certainly wouldn't have been the first time that he repaired the thing.

Still, even then, he was going to have to go without his Quirk. There was no way he could use that ability without someone identifying him. Ed-E would be able to help him hide, and Ed-E's laser wasn't anything to scoff at, but he couldn't rely on the robot to do his work. If he were going to do this, then he would need his guns.

First, he would need to make decoys. It was improbable that the police would take his possessions out of storage. However, in case they were to suspect that the gear was his, then he would need to substitute the guns, ammo, and stimpaks with fake ones. The plasma rifle was probably the most concerning. If they found green goo around, they might suspect that it was that weapon in particular. However, he had two factors in his favor. One, it would be easy to blame the goo on some sort of Quirk. He doubted that a police officer would immediately assume that it was from a gun. Two, the police didn't know how the gun worked, nor had they ever seen it in action. It would be safe to say that he could easily substitute it for a fake. The same would go for his 10mm, stimpaks, and his ammo. It would take a full day, but if he feigned illness tomorrow, he could do it.

He shoved the rest of his stuff back under his bed, save for Ed-E. It was late enough that he could start working on repairing his eyebot without his mother even knowing it. Besides, he probably only needed to have some new wiring installed, which was easier to do in this world. It would only take him an hour or so, by his estimate.

And so Izuku Midoriya put his plan into motion.


	4. Chapter 4

**This chapter came out fairly short, but that would be because I'll be moving into the sports festival in the next chapter, so I thought that it would be best to make this its own chapter.**

 **What fallout game is your favorite? I think mine is Fallout 3. I would have loved to write from that game, since I know more about the Capital Wasteland than the Mojave, but this story really would only work with the Courier.**

Midoriya had to admit, he did a good job of creating placebos. The weight and overall shape of the fake guns were almost identical to the real deal. He even made a glow in the dark compound out of only _slightly_ radioactive materials. It wouldn't harm anyone, even if the glass broke. The stimpaks and ammo were the easiest part, since they could be made out of any scrap metal. For example, the stimpaks he made all started off as turkey thermometers.

The hard part of his night, however, would be actually getting into the police station. There was no doubt intense security in the place, but at least at night time he would have the cover of darkness to hide him. Ed-E chirped beside him. Although he wouldn't be useful for sneaking around, he would be useful for another purpose.

"I know, but we can't go in with our guns blazing," he answered the antsy robot. Ed-E was a pre-war robot, but after two hundred years of wasteland wandering, he had trained himself to be prepared for a fight at any time.

One thing that Midoriya never had to worry about in the wasteland was security cameras. Even if there were cameras in a building, it wouldn't be of consequence in the long run. Whoever was in charge usually ended up dead, anyway, so who were they to tell?

In contrast, in this world, he had no intention of killing, or even harming, the police officers. His goal was to get in and get out.

And that's what Ed-E was for. The eyebot could hook up into the computer system to take down the cameras.

He fidgeted with his ranger helmet. He felt different with it on, as though he were a different person. If he really thought about it, he wasn't wrong. With that helmet, he was recounting his days at the Courier. By donning it, he was disregarding the laws that people lived by in this world.

Was he any better than a villain?

He shook the thought from his head. Having seconds thoughts now was not going to help him. He'd already gotten this far, there was no point in turning back.

Midoriya peeked inside of one of the windows. Inside was the security room. A wall of monitors encompassed an entire wall. Each screen showed a different part of the station. The lobby, the back rooms, and the jail cells were all being closely monitored by the cameras. Only one chair faced the monitors, which was occupied by a single officer. Much to Izuku's luck, he looked like he was taking a nap.

A quick knock on the window confirmed his thoughts. "Shhh…we're very stealthy," the MK suit whispered in his ear. For a stealth suit, it was very talkative. On the bright side, nobody could hear it expect for him.

He pulled on the window, and much to his surprise, it wasn't locked. It lifted with ease, having been well maintained. A window in the Mojave would sooner shatter than lift.

Just like they planned, Ed-E floated into the room. It was barely noticeable, but he did make a small hum-like sound. As long as the guard wasn't a light sleeper, then they should have been fine.

As soon as Ed-E entered the room, Izuku followed. Gently, he closed the window behind him.

Ed-E connected himself to the computer, then worked his magic. Midoriya kept his eye on the sleeping guard, but he seemed out of it. The eyebot chirped as he disconnected himself from the system. Each of the cameras were frozen on their last frame, but Ed-E had managed to keep the clock ticking. They would have to remember to come back through to reset them.

Otherwise, he gave a thumbs up to the robot before they moved on. There were a few police officers around, but it wasn't anything that would be hard to sneak around.

Easy as that, Midoriya was able to find the storage room. He slunk into the room, careful not to make any noise as he opened and closed the door. Inside, there were numerous tubs and containers to organize evidence. He figured his best bet would be to search near the front of the room. The plasma rifle would have needed to take up a fairly large amount of space, so that's where he started.

It was the third container he opened that had his stuff in it. With his glee barely contained, he switched out the fakes for the real. Tenderly, he moved his fingers over his plasma rifle. Each part checked out.

Happy with his acquisition, he returned everything else to where he found it, then left the building with Ed-E.

* * *

Rumors spread fast. Of course, within two days, the police had already issued a warning for a mysterious killer in the area. More of a vigilante, they called him, since the only people that were targeted were villains. He wasn't cold blooded enough to kill petty thieves or anything of the like, but if he caught word of any villain with any extreme intent, then he was on the trail. It wasn't particularly hard to find any of them, since they didn't really hide.

Still, rumors spread in the underworld as well. The masked killer who targeted villains on the streets. He went by the name Courier Six, although nobody could ever know what that meant. Still, deep in the message boards, people just like Midoriya argued of the significant meaning.

 _A courier is a mailman, right?_

 _It's someone who delivers something. It might mean that he's delivering justice in the streets._

 _Is it really justice?_

 _Well, what does the six mean? Are there six of them?_

 _There's only been sightings of a single person. It seems unlikely that there would be more than one person._

 _Is that how many people that he's going to kill?_

 _How many people has he killed so far? Four?_

 _That would mean he would only be two away. It seems possible._

Unbeknownst to those who speculated over the name, it meant something much more simple, although they could never guess it. But those were secrets best left buried in the wasteland, not for those of the old world to toil over.

Besides people getting on the sub board, there were other people who decided that Courier Six was worth enough to investigate.

"Courier Six, huh?"

Midoriya turned slowly to see whoever was addressing him. Ed-E rumbled in distrust, but was faithful enough not to fire without a direct order.

A weathered man stood away from him, in the shadows. His eyes were covered with a white mask, which seemed unnecessary. His red, tattered scarf billowed from the draft that blew through the alleyway. He was well equipped, but still foolish to think that he could confront him like this.

"The hero-killer, Stain, right?" Izuku asked. Lucky for him, his ranger helmet distorted his voice enough that he wouldn't disclose his identity.

"So, you listen to the news."

"Are you here to try and kill me?" he asked, void of any emotion. Stain's weapons were all melee, which meant that Midoriya could pick him off from a distance. If the man got close to him, then his armor would shield him from any blade. Still, he didn't know what the man's Quirk was, which was the unknown factor. He kept himself guarded. Reading people was easier in the wasteland; they had no secret superpowers. The wasteland wasn't a complex place, not like this world.

Stain grinned. "You don't listen well enough, apparently. I think your ideals are honorable. I've come to see you with my own eyes."

"What about my convictions do you find so appealing?" Midoriya questioned. He had to admit, he did not expect a man like Stain to find his ideas so convincing.

Stain took a few small steps toward him. Either he was trying to convey peace, or he was getting closer to strike. Either way, Midoriya kept up his guard. Ed-E could shoot at any moment. "You don't fear using a gun to solve the problem with this society. Heroes these days only seek glory and fame. They don't have the gull to do what's needed. You, however…you're different. You take a gun and do it yourself, even though you are called a villain yourself. You are a hero in the shadows."

"But you're not hero yourself. In fact, you kill heroes. Why would you not want to kill me, then?"

"Because they aren't _true_ heroes. They don't want justice, they want fame. What makes them any different from villains?"

Izuku couldn't help but agree that the hero profession was inbalanced. Still, his solution to the problem was not one that he could agree with, no matter how he looked at it. "But they _aren't_ villains. Killing them doesn't solve the problem, it only makes it worse."

"Who are you to tell me that?"

"You kill innocent people. I only kill murderous, heinous villains who disrupt civilian life. Our lines are drawn miles apart," Midoriya answered. His fingers came to his pistol, which Stain's eye caught.

"Easy, Courier. The last thing I want to do it kill you. I just came to see for my own eyes what you were like. I can't say I was disappointed."

"The same doesn't go for me, Hero Killer. I should kill you now, while I have the chance."

The man stepped back into the shadows. "There's only one man who will defeat me, and it won't be you."

Midoriya loosened his hand and let go of the gun. He wasn't deep in an alley, and it was likely that a passerby might see him. It would be much more trouble than it was worth to hunt down the killer, as much as he wanted to. Besides, he would no doubt meet Stain once again.


	5. Chapter 5

**This chapter is almost double the size of the last one, and that's because I fit the entirety of the sports festival into this chapter. The next chapter or two are going to be slight variations of what happened in the show/manga, because I don't want to change them too much. This chapter is the same. Otherwise, I can't wait to get to some more original storytelling!**

 **Also, I couldn't help myself. I slipped in a John Mulaney reference. Let me know if you catch it.**

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room. Midoriya and All Might used to be close, but now it felt as though there was a distance between them. First and foremost, Izuku knew that All Might felt entirely responsible for what happened to him. He was there to see Midoriya disappear, only to appear half an hour later as a completely different person. Second, it was hard for Izuku to look at people the same way. In the wasteland, he had to stand up for himself, even within the NCR. There was respect, but not the same as a teacher-student kind of relationship. He was sure that he was coming across as cold, which he didn't want to, but he couldn't really help it.

"I wanted to talk to you about the sport's festival," All Might explained. He wasn't keeping up his muscle form, so it was almost like Midoriya were speaking to a skeleton. His voice, even, was different. It was deeper, and it didn't radiate the same amount of hope as his muscle form.

"I've been thinking about it a little…" Midoriya answered, although he was thinking about the best way to get around his inability to use his quirk without the help of stimpaks.

"That's good. The UA sport's festival is a huge opportunity for UA students to get their names out there. This is important, and it will only happen once. That's why it's so important, as my successor, that you show off everything you can do. You need to announce yourself, let the world know, I am here!"

Izuku gulped. Originally, he planned on getting through the festival by trying to just make it through. However, he forgot that as All Might's successor, he had another job to do. Even though he hadn't used it properly in two years, he would need to focus on trying to use his power. Besides, he could probably use a few nights away from his weapons.

Still, it was too late to try an improve before the festival. If he were going to give it his all, then he would need a little help.

* * *

Izuku wasn't entirely sure, but he thought that he was starting to feel nervous. Students surrounded him, both familiar and unfamiliar. Instead of going to class that day, all of the UA students congregated into one of the large arenas on campus. A gigantic crowd sat in the stands, watching each of the young, future heroes.

Midoriya clenched and unclenched his fists. He wanted to hold his pistol, one of the few comfort objects he owned. At the very least, he wished that Ed-E were there. There were far too many eyes on him to his liking. Sure, he knew that none of them meant any harm to him, but his survival instinct told him that he needed to keep constant vigilance.

Underneath his uniform, he managed to hide two stimpaks. Maybe it was cheating, but he found them to be necessary, unless he wanted to keep breaking his bones every time he activated his quirk.

After a not-so-warm welcome speech from Bakugo, and an explanation of the first event from the R-rated hero, Midnight, they were all off. A few students, Todoroki and Bakugo in particular, skyrocketed ahead of the other students. Meanwhile, Midoriya was stuck in the archway at the beginning.

 _So this is the first obstacle_ , he thought to himself before forcing himself though. There was an art to getting around people, which he soon learned after bringing people with him in the wasteland. He constantly was running in and out of rooms, which his companions didn't seem to get. He couldn't count the number of times he ran into Arcade after he stood in the doorway. Arcade had a certain…air to him. The disappointed gaze that Midoriya earned from him was enough of an incentive to learn how to get around people quickly.

Only seconds had passed before Midoriya found his way out. So far, so good. He'd learned _something_ useful in the wasteland, at the least. Next, he had to catch up. He wasn't as fast as the speedy students, but he'd worn power armor enough to be able to move swiftly. Without the bulky metal on him, he was considerably faster than any of the others.

The next obstacle he had to get over was the ice that Todoroki left on the ground. It wasn't like he had much experience with anything cold in the Mojave, so that was the downside. However, he was desperate enough to try anything. He ran onto the ice, balancing his body just right to slide across it.

He caught up just in time to witness Todoroki freeze the gigantic robots. Their haunting, precarious poses reminded Midoriya of the Divide. For a moment, he froze. The Divide was one of the most dangerous places he'd been in the Mojave, and his brain registered it as such. Just for that one moment, none of his muscles could move. His brain did not want to enter that field of robots at any cost.

To try and take his mind off of it, he focused on his plan. Most of the robots were frozen over, but there was one off to the side that Todoroki didn't quite see. It's could still move itself, even if it was a little disoriented. If Midoriya could get up to its head, he had no doubt that he could reprogram it for his own needs. It would have been easier with his Pip-Boy, but he didn't have time to fill out the paperwork. He would need to get on top of that.

Discreetly, Izuku moved his arm in a way that jammed one of his stimpaks into his flesh. It was nearly undetectable. When he felt the stimpak hit his system, he activated One for All in his legs and aimed for the robot. He should have been able to make it easily, it was just like the entrance exam.

He crouched down, then extended his legs. Just like that, he was flying. On the bright side, his legs weren't broken. On the downside, he was down a stimpak.

With a load thud, he landed on the shoulder of the robot. It didn't seem too impressed with him, but Izuku was already fast at work reprogramming the machine. Although it was a different world than the Mojave, machines were machines. It only took him seconds to reroute the command center to no longer take remote orders, and to focus on him.

He could hear the confusion of the students. A smirk played on his face. So it really was worth finding all those science books and going though trial and error on various robots. He remembered most distinctly trying to reprogram a sentry bot, onto to have it turn on him. He still had scars on his arms from that experience, but they weren't as noticeable as some of the others.

The next few challenges were in view. First, there was a large pit with ropes across it. After that, he could see Todoroki trying to get across what seemed like a mine field. Bakugo wasn't far behind.

Unfortunately, he couldn't take the robot with him. The pit was too wide for him to get across. Still, he wasn't done using the thing. He thought of his plan in his head, then prayed to any god that it would work and not kill him. It had been a long time since he'd done anything this stupid, not since losing his brain.

First, he pried a plate off of the robot. He would need another boost when he got to the minefield. Then, he programmed the robot to throw him as far as it could. He had to be quick about commanding it and getting in the palm, but even with the effects of the stimpak wearing off, he was able to make it in time.

The G-force he was introduced to was incredible. He could actually feel each of his organs move in his body. Still, even as his vision was darkening and his head was getting light, he had to focus. If he didn't time his moves out just right, he was going to break every bone in his body, and then probably die.

And just as his luck would have it, his landing point would be at Todoroki and Bakugo. Quickly, he flipped over the piece of metal that he was flying across on. Before he had the chance to hit the ground, he slammed the metal down onto the ground. As his luck was having it that day, he hit one of the explosives. As he soared forward, Bakugo and Todoroki were thrown off their rhythms.

He hit the ground at a roll, then got up and started running. And just like that, he won. His feet were the first to cross the finish line, and it was all up to dumb luck. Even then, euphoria filled his body. Winning something as trivial as an obstacle race still brought a smile to his face.

* * *

At first, as the other students started crossing the line, they congratulated him on his victory. "How did you get that robot to do that?" Uraraka asked him. She seemed genuinely impressed by the feat, although Midoriya himself felt as though the task was easy. Crude, even.

"Oh, it wasn't much, really. Robots can be reprogrammed to do nearly anything beyond their initial parameters."

A group of students surrounded him, asking him about how he did it. He was starting to get uncomfortable with the amount of people around him.

Then, as soon as Midnight explained the point system for the cavalry battle, it seemed as though some god was laughing down at him.

Things were never fair for Izuku Midoriya.

* * *

For most of the battle, his team did a good job of avoiding the vast majority of the other students. Even then, the worst part was trying to avoid Hatsume's never-ending stream of questions regarding the robot reprogramming.

In the end, however, it seemed as though their efforts were wasted. That was, until Tokoyami showed Midoriya that he managed to snag another headband off of Todoroki's neck. Midoriya breathed out a sigh of relief. "Nice, Tokoyami. I thought we were out of this for sure," he replied, but his voice was monotonous. He was glad that he was able to move on, although he wouldn't have minded too much if he were forced out of the match. He exerted a lot of energy in the obstacle course, and if he were being honest, he was getting kind of tired.

On the bright side of it, Midnight announced that they were going to have a short break before the final round began.

Midoriya zoned out, trying to think of ways to rejuvenate his energy. There was a lunch available, but he wasn't really hungry. Besides, he didn't really want anything to come back up in the final match.

What surprised him is when Todoroki came up to him and asked if he could speak to him. That, he figured, would be interesting.

* * *

"Are you All Might's secret love child or something?" Todoroki asked. It was in such a bland tone that Midoriya couldn't tell if he were joking or not. On the off chance that he wasn't, Midoriya held in his laugh.

"I'm afraid not," he answered, but he suspected that Todoroki might still see the twinge of his mouth.

Todoroki's cold gaze met his own before he started going on again. It was weird, Midoriya thought, that people always seemed to be explaining stuff like this to him. What surprised him about Todoroki was that he left it at that, and didn't ask him to do something for him. To be honest, Midoriya liked doing chores for people, because it was a good income on the road. Still, he didn't understand why they always chose _him_ to do things.

And then he understood. Todoroki didn't say anything, but he must have been asking for help. He was long gone before Midoriya made up his mind. There was no cap incentive, but he was going to help him anyway.

* * *

In his first match, he was facing off against a boy named Shinsou. He had unruly purple hair that stuck up in every direction. He had bags under his eyes. He was familiar, because he remembered that day that the entirety of the first years came to scope out the competition. That must have been him taunting Bakugo.

Ojiro was kind enough to explain to him that his Quirk had something to do with speaking. If Midoriya could get away without speaking, then he would be in the clear.

Then, as soon as the match started, the kid started taunting him. It was about him, it was about his classmates, anything that Shinsou thought would get under Midoriya's skin.

He kept quiet as he approached the kid. Even without a Quirk, he could have easily overpowered him. Still, even as he came forward, the kid kept talking. A growl escaped Midoriya's throat, and just like that, his body stopped against his will.

If he had known that _any_ sound would have allowed Shinsou to take control of his body, then he wouldn't have done it. The fact that a tiny growl was the same as answering a question boggled and frustrated Midoriya.

"Now, turn around and walk out of the arena," Shinsou commanded, to which Midoriya's body complied. That was annoying. The way he felt was similar to how his body moved without his brain.

Just before he could step out of bounds, a vision came to him. It was weird, definitely, because he didn't remember taking any drugs. For a second, he panicked. The inability to control his own body paired with uncertainty and visions was a lot for him to handle. Still, he stuck through it, because there was nothing else he could do. His heart pounded in his chest, and the same feeling came to him that happened whenever he entered a vault.

In front of him were eyes. The sheer multiplicity of them started to change his mind. This vision wasn't like a vault, it was like that one time he had to fight a bear while suffering the side effects of that insane drug.

And without his permission, One for All activated in one of his fingers. As power rocketed throughout the arena, his senses and ability to move came back to him. He breathed hard. The culmination of all those things made Midoriya's head spin. He wanted to vomit. Being under those effects also made him remember things about the Mojave that he would have preferred to have been forgotten.

He focused again. The playing field was now open, and now he knew that even the smallest of grunts would put him back under Shinsou's mind control. Maybe he was traumatized, he realized. Sure, the Mojave made him tough. Nonetheless, someone like him couldn't live there for two years without some kind of mental repercussion. Shinsou would have been the second time that day that he had some kind of panic. He would need to work on that.

Without making any noise, Midoriya overcame the purple haired boy. Then, after that match, he found himself a quiet corner to shut off the world.

* * *

His next fight would be against Todoroki.

He must have been right. No way would Todoroki tell him something so personal only to have it go by without consequence.

First, Todoroki would attack him with his ice. In order to counteract that, he would need to use One for All. To do so effectively, he would need to use his last stimpak, and he would need to inject it moments before the match officially started. He could pretend that he was stretching and rolling his arms to do that.

Still, there was a good chance that the effects of the stimpak would wear off before the match ended. If he wanted to win this match, then he would have to finish Todoroki off quickly. With the full power of One for All, then he probably wouldn't have much of a problem. Still, he had a feeling that his plan wouldn't come to fruition. He was in the wasteland for too long to expect anything to go to plan.

Midoriya stretched his arm as planned, and felt the needle inject into his flesh. Moments later, the match began. As predicted, Todoroki engaged with an ice attack. With ease, Midoriya was able to punch the ice away. It still hurt, especially since one of his fingers was broken from the previous match, but it was easy.

He initially planned on trying to get close to Todoroki, but he was too good at defense.

Midoriya did notice one thing, though. As Todoroki had explained to him, he didn't use the left side of his body. That was his father's quirk, he'd told Midoriya. But now he could see why that was a poor decision. The ice had an effect on his body, he could see. The other match that Todoroki went through got over too fast for him to notice. Without his left side, he would succumb to his own quirk.

Either way, Midoriya was running out of power. The answer to winning was obvious. If he could play the long game, then Todoroki would lose the match. But, of course, things weren't that easy. Before the round started, Todoroki asked him for help. He wasn't sure what that meant, or what the hell _he_ was supposed to do about it, until that moment.

It would mean that Midoriya would lose the match, but he would complete his mission.

His fingers were already broken in numerous places. There wasn't any way that he would be able to compete in the final match anyway, so why did he care to get that far.

"It's yours!" he shouted at Todoroki. The other boy stopped in his tracks to listen. "Your Quirk, not his!"

It had been a long time since Midoriya felt like he helped someone. But as he heard the slight whisper of Todoroki's voice thanking him, then he felt it was worth it. Even as the arena exploded with light and he blacked out, then it was worth breaking his bones for.


	6. Chapter 6

Recovery Girl was, suffice to say, was not impressed by Izuku Midoriya. The police already knew about the scars that littered his body, but he supposed that they didn't tell anyone at UA. Most notably, she kept making a big deal out of the large scar on his chest. Three claw marks ran sideways down his chest. It was probably the most obvious scar that he had.

"What on earth is this from?" she asked him. She sounded quite mad. Because of the ruckus she caused when she saw it, All Might also came in to check on him, although he was in his weak form. He blanched at the sight of it.

The truth was that it was from a deathclaw. He blamed himself for it, really. He knew damn well what was inside Quarry Junction, so he should have prepared himself for it better. His back was open, so the moment he turned around, one of them got a good swipe in. He was lucky he didn't die right there. He had Arcade to thank for saving his life, both by killing the deathclaw and patching him up.

"It's difficult to explain, but it's fine. The hospital cleared me when I went in after the attack."

"And look at all these," Recovery Girl said as she looked up and down his body. Each scar she pointed out reminded Midoriya of different battles. That one was from raiders, that one from a sentry bot, another from spore carriers. He could go on and on trying to explain each and every scar on his body. The worst one would have been the scar from his lobotomy, but it was hardly noticeable. He made the robots at Big MT patch him up real good after that one.

"Was this you?" Recovery Girl accused All Might. Midoriya couldn't help but feel like she was an overprotective grandma.

All Might put his hands up. "It wasn't me, I promise. But young Midoriya…what were these from?"

"Well, as you know, this one on my forehead was from when I got shot in the head," he started, but was already interrupted by a frantic Recovery Girl.

"When you were what?!"

"I was shot in the head. The police are well aware of this."

"That doesn't make it any better! All Might, you knew about this?"

"I knew about that one, but that was all," he answered. His eyes were depressing to look into. Again, Midoriya knew that he was blaming himself for all of it.

"Honestly, these all happened because I wasn't being careful. The conditions just didn't happen to be right, and I made bad choices," he answered, which was true enough.

Recovery Girl huffed. "Well, besides that, your hand is healed. I'm sure you'll notice that there is a scar on your hand now. I won't fix that. I'm done fixing you up when you go and break your body every time there's a fight. You need to learn how to use your Quirk properly. All Might, are you listening to me?"

To Midoriya, what was another scar to his collection? It was just another reminder of everything he'd been through. "Yes, I'm listening."

"Midoriya, as soon as you feel like it, you can return to the arena. I'm sure that you wouldn't want to miss it."

He supposed that he didn't.

* * *

The prospects for Midoriya were low. He got a whopping zero offers for an internship after the festival. He suspected that people wouldn't be too impressed by his ability to break his bones, but he at least thought someone would be interested in his ability to override the robot. He supposed that Bakugo and Todoroki stole the spotlight, and any hero who may have wanted to offer him an internship was likely steered away. Besides, the crowd had probably already forgotten about the obstacle course by the time the matches came around.

At least, Midoriya thought that he was out of luck. That was, until All Might approached him. Apparently, a hero by the name Gran Torino had offered an internship to him. Judging by the way that All Might was reacting, however, he wasn't so sure that it was in good fortune.

Nonetheless, he decided he'd rather take up the man on his offer than go with anyone else. Maybe he'd never heard of the guy, but he was sure that there were a lot of heroes he hadn't heard of before.

Midoriya was careful to pack everything he needed. Ed-E fluttered around the room, but was carefully watching what he was doing. First, he stuffed his plasma rifle into the bag. He'd modified it so that it could fit in the bottom of his book bag by a series of folds and slides. So far, it didn't seem as though it negatively effected the weapon, so he considered it a job well done. His 10mm was concealed under his clothes, like it usually was. Then he threw in a few stimpaks. On top of that he threw in a few changes of clothing. UA would give him his costume tomorrow, which would be the first time that he'd seen it in a while.

Ed-E, on the down side, was far too large to fit into any kind of bag without being conspicuous. "Hey, Ed-E," he initiated conversation with the robot. Ed-E couldn't understand Japanese, so he had to switch languages when he talked to him.

"Tomorrow morning, I'm going to have you follow me from a distance. Don't let anyone see you. When I get to this Gran Torino, I'll collect you. Got it?"

Ed-E gave a few satisfied beeps. The eyebot got antsy when it wasn't out with him. God knows he hated being locked in the Lucky 38 with the rest of the crazies. He especially hated spending time with Lily, who sometimes forgot that the robot wasn't an enemy.

"I'm sorry dear," Lily apologized to Midoriya once, in that oh-so-innocent grandma way about her.

"It's fine, he can always be fixed," he'd replied, even though it was a pain in the ass to get the bot back into working order. It was even harder to work out the dents that the nightkin put into him.

Besides the occasional whir of his engine, Ed-E did a good job of staying out of sight. Hopefully, nobody would notice or care. On the very bright side, as the Courier, nobody ever mentioned the robot in the reports. Either they didn't notice him, or they thought they were seeing things. Either way, if Midoriya got caught with him, then he wouldn't be too worried about it.

Aizawa handed out the briefcases and led them to the train station. Ed-E was fast, but not fast enough to catch up to a train. He would have to hitch a ride on top of it. Luckily, the train he was taking wouldn't be going through any tunnels. Discreetly, he made motions to the robot, which he hoped that he picked up. At the very least, Ed-E would be able to track him from his Pip-Boy. Finally, he had gotten around to registering it as a support device. Although he already wore it during class, he would also be able to pair it with his hero costume.

The train ride went by fairly fast. Gran Torino didn't live too far away, he supposed. He was pleased to hear that Ed-E made it, too. However he did it, Midoirya wasn't sure that he wanted to know.

Eventually, he was able to find the place listed on his info sheet. It looked like a run-down building, but who was he to judge.

And as soon as he walked in, it looked like the man was dead. It took a few moments for him to react. In the wasteland, finding a dead man was nothing to stress himself about. Then, he remembered that he was not longer in the wasteland, and it was probably a bad thing that the hero he was interning with was on the floor.

"Hey, are you dead?" he asked, not sure if he should expect an answer back.

As if on cue, his head popped up off the floor. An old man grinned at him. "I'm alive!"

The old man was senile. Or, maybe he got the wrong address.

No, the man was in costume. If anything, he was likely playing a ruse with him. "Are you okay?" he asked as he stepped into the room. He closed the door behind him.

"I'm fine, I just spilled my ketchup on myself."

"You're Gran Torino, right? I'm Izuku Midoriya, the student you took on for the internship. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, Toshinori?"

Midoriya sighed. His act was getting old. "No, my name is Midoriya. What's the point of this act, are you trying to get me to leave?"

"You're smart, boy," Gran Torino said in a deep voice. His entire demeanor changed in an instant. "I didn't expect you to see through that."

"I'm used to it," he answered simply.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get your suit on."

Midoriya did hear him right, didn't he? "I'm sorry?"

Gran Torino didn't answer with words. Instead, Midoriya barely escaped from his attack. With an incredible speed, he shot up from the floor towards him.

So, he had some kind of mobility Quirk. "You want to have a mock battle? Fine."

Izuku dropped his bag and suitcase to the floor. Then, he undid the case. Inside was his new and improved costume. A note from Hatsume explained that his costume had been improved upon. He was unsure why they would do that without his permission, but he did like the improvements.

On him, the costume felt more streamlined. It was heavier, that was sure, but better suited for his style.

Gran Torino barely gave him a chance to prepare himself. This time, however, he had technology on his side. He hit the VATS on his Pip Boy, which offered a chemical to his brain that would slow down time, if only for a moment. It helped him lock onto his target, although Gran Torino was still quite fast.

"Use your Quirk!" Gran Torino said as he flew past him.

"I don't think that's practical…" he said. There was no way he could control his Quirk, nor could he bring himself to hit the old man.

After a few failed attempts at battle and a few frozen pastries later, Izuku finally figured out the intricacies of his Quirk. Before, he was thinking of his Quirk as a weapon. Like a Power Fist, or even a gun, only to be used in small, specified bursts. However, it should have been used more like Power Armor. It should have worked together all over his body, never expended all in one place.

It would take practice, but he would get it. For the first time in a long time, it felt like he was making progress.

* * *

Ed-E was fairly angry at him. After all, he didn't have much time to go and collect him since he arrived at Gran Torino's place. "I'm sorry," he apologized softly to the eyebot for what felt like the hundreth time that night. He had opened a panel on his side to clean out some of the gunk he collected from a day's worth of travel. Midoriya had to be careful to be quiet. He wouldn't want to wake up Gran Torino, or even come close to alerting him about what he was doing.

He closed the panel on Ed-E before giving him a quick pat. "There you go, bud. How are you feeling?"

Ed-E answered with a few happy beeps. He may have had spunk to him, but he wasn't hard to please. Even though he didn't have much for him to do in this world, he was happy that he made it over with him. That robot was his one comfort object of a two year nightmare. He couldn't say that he liked the Mojave, but he came to learn some lessons from the place. Most notably, it was important to let go of the old world. Wanting and wishing for a bygone world was not going to get anyone anywhere. For the denizens of the wastes, it meant that they did not live in the era before the bombs fell. For Midoriya, it meant that he needed to stop looking to the world he used to live in and keep his sights on the future.

He thought that the future would be held in the Mojave, but he was wrong. Returning to the world that he rejected was hard. Small things that he used to hold so dear seemed nearly taboo for him to care about. Ed-E was a piece from the world he accepted, so having him near him made him feel as though the world were stable once more.

After letting Ed-E go, he dug into his bag for his plasma rifle. The key to having a good weapon was good maintenance. He could clean the gun with his eyes closed, and he did sometimes on restless nights. There was nothing quite like setting up in an abandoned shed, with the hallow desert winds blowing through the twisted metal. Uncertainty and fear were impossible to escape from in those situations. Even with Arcade and Ed-E keeping watch, he never was quite able to fall into a deep sleep.

Now, it was too quiet. The beds were too soft, too clean, and the atmosphere was quiet. It was like he were in a vault, which was almost never a good thing.

Finally, he forced himself to put the gun away and crawl into bed. Not only was he doing repairs, he had spent a good amount of time trying to finesse his Quirk. He made good progress, even if he landed in some trash a good few times.

Tomorrow, he would have to work more on it. He forced himself to sleep. Being sleep deprived would only negatively affect his progress.


	7. Chapter 7

**Just wanted to apologize for having such boring chapters. It's important that I address the differences that are happening in this story as opposed to the canon timeline, but God it's so boring to write. A majority of this chapter was written as I re-watched the episode, so it's almost more of a rehash.**

 **When we do get to the point of plot divergence, what are you guys hoping to see? (seriously please leave some kind of note/review I'm begging you)**

The next morning involved more training. Midoriya had practiced and improved himself enough that he was able to dodge each of Gran Torino's attacks, even without using his Pip-Boy. He was able to predict each and every attack before it happened. It was not without any damage, however. Furniture and decorations were strewn about the room. Midoriya was happy to say that none of the destruction was caused by him; Gran Torino was the one who was being carefree. But, he supposed that it was his own house, so if he so wished to destroy the place, then that was his decision.

"You're doing good, boy," Gran Torino complimented him. He noticed that he turned away to wipe his face. Izuku guessed that he must have drawn blood. Considering the speed of the old man, even touching him was no easy feat.

"Well, let's get going. I might as well take you out on patrol," he said, before heading towards the door.

"Wait, we're leaving? But what about my training?" he asked. He was genuinely surprised by the old coot. He thought this whole internship would turn into a crash course over how to use his Quirk.

"There's nothing more that I can do for you here," he explained shortly. "Come on, let's get going."

Seeing as he had no choice, he followed Gran Torino out the door. Quickly and discreetly, he signed to Ed-E, who had been stationed on the roof. He told him to keep watch, although he didn't expect anyone to show up. Still, he was pleased to see the robot follow from behind. Ed-E wasn't used to being so far away, but he soon got used to it. No matter how spunky the eyebot was, he still had to listen to his code. And that code required him to follow Midoriya's orders.

* * *

Gran Torino's legs were so short, they hung just over the edge of his seat. Midoriya kept his eyes on the window. The skyline of Hosu city, which was a distant vision, became closer and closer. He wasn't sure how Ed-E was doing, but he had to assume that he would eventually meet up with him again. He would likely do the same thing he did last time, whatever that was.

The peace in the train car was suddenly interrupted by an explosion. A pro hero and a bird looking thing crashed into the train. The impact caused by their sudden crash knocked Izuku out of his seat.

Then, as the train came to a screeching halt, he was thrown yet again. As he forced himself up, he was able to get a better look at whatever had crashed into the train.

He recognized it, but he didn't know too much about it. The last time he'd seen one of those things, it was before he'd been forced into the Mojave. The ugly mug was currently in the midst of a tussle with a pro hero, although it wasn't one that Izuku recognized.

Before he could even think about getting back up, Gran Torino had zoomed past him. "Stay here!" he shouted as he collided with the bird, which forced him back out.

But Midoriya had more concerning issues on his mind. He knew that this was the city that his friend, Iida, was interning at. The fact that he hadn't responded to a single text of his indicated that something was wrong. Ever since the end of the sport's festival, Iida seemed distant. He knew his brother was hurt in a fight against Stain…

Ah, so that was it. The encounter had happened there, in Hosu City. Midoriya blamed himself. There was no way he should have missed the need Iida had for revenge. He, himself, had gone through the same thing. And because he acted upon his need to get revenge, no matter how much Benny deserved that bullet, it had changed him fundamentally.

He couldn't let Iida make the same mistake he did.

Midoriya ran towards the hole in the train. In the midst of the city, there was an explosion. Something was going on in Hosu City, and he didn't like the looks of it.

A chirp was emitted near Izuku. When he looked, he could see that Ed-E had floated near him. He seemed anxious, likely because he was given instructions not to attack without a direct order from Midoriya.

"Come on, Ed-E," he said to his eyebot before hopping off the train. One of the conductors yelled after him, but he ignored them.

Once in the city, he was quickly blocked as an explosion came from a bus. Not long after, one of the monsters and a good number of heroes appeared. One of them was Manual, who he knew Iida was supposed to be interning under. If Iida wasn't around, then that meant he ran off on his own. He had to work quickly. Either Iida would commit a horrible crime, or he would be dead within an hour. Neither option seemed good to him.

From what he understood about Stain, and from his own experience, he would be away from the destruction. Dark alleys would be his location of choice.

"Get back kid, you're in the way. We can handle this," a hero told him. Honestly, they'd be better off with him in the fight. His plasma rifle could have done a good number on the beast, but he'd left it at Gran Torino's place. He still had his pistol, but that wouldn't do much good in this situation.

"Right," he answered before running back. Using his new-found ability, he would be able to scour the city fairly easily. "Alright Ed-E, keep up," he told the bot, who chirped happily in reply. He was probably happy to see some excitement, finally, since the second Battle of Hoover Dam.

But even then, it didn't take too long for Midoriya to spot them. Iida was on the ground in a vulnerable position, while Stain stood atop of him. His sword was poised, ready to strike. On the side of the alley, there was another hero. He didn't look as though he could move.

As quick as he could, he bounded towards the two. Having only just arrived at the scene, he was able to land in a solid punch. Stain flew backwards.

He landed in front of Iida, acting as a shield.

"Midoriya?" the boy asked.

"Don't worry, Iida. Leave this to me," he replied. Ed-E bounced, as though he were nodding. Behind his back, he quickly sent his location to Todoroki. Earning his trust was one of the best moves he'd made.

Stain slowly stood himself up and wiped the blood from his face. He wore a sick grin on his face. "So it's you. I should have known."

Of course, he probably recognized Ed-E. Who else would have had a robot like that around? Luckily, he didn't say the name aloud.

"Iida, I need you to get out of here," he said, trying to get his classmate away from the fight. If he could get both him and the other hero away, then there would be less of a chance of casualties.

"I can't move," Iida said. Midoriya had to agree, he looked like he was glued to the ground. "I think it's his Quirk. Since he cut me I've been paralyzed."

Yes, that seemed like a good Quirk for a shadowy man like Stain to have. How terrifying must it have been to have died like that. Trapped in one's own body as that creep stabbed them. Oh, how Caesar would have loved to have such an ability. What a wonderful torture technique.

"I thought I heard them say on the news that he might have a Quirk like that," he answered.

"Midoriya, please, don't get involved. This doesn't have anything to do with you," Iida pleaded. The frustration on his face was evidence enough that he'd regretted his decision. After this, he probably wouldn't try to enact his revenge plots again. For that, Midoriya considered it a job well done.

Stain laughed. "But you won't leave. It's not in your blood. You're eager to do what's right, but can you stomach to do it here, with an audience?"

He was taunting him, which never seemed to go over well with him. He could maybe stomach it when it was from Arcade, but from his nose-less freak? He was going to boil over.

"I was taking care of this so-called-hero when he got involved. The weaker of us was doomed to be culled. You know what I mean, you understand," he continued to monologue.

He was getting boring, really.

"Listen to me! Stand down, run away, this has nothing to do with you!" Iida repeated. Everybody was starting to get on his nerves.

"You're wrong. This has everything to do with me. I'm sorry, Iida, I should have known. I should have recognized the fear and anger that you felt, because I've gone through it all once before. The need to enact revenge on those who've done you wrong, I know what it's like. Because I acted on those feelings, it ruined me. I can't let the same thing happen to you."

"Midoriya, what-" Iida began, but he didn't let him finish. He rushed at Stain, who swung at him with his sword. He needed to get in close, where he couldn't strike him.

Just barely, he missed the first blade. He got to his rear, where he used the ground and his momentum to spring himself upward and above the hero killer. Using his Quirk, he was able to land in a decent blow.

But as soon as he landed, his body froze. The stress that he felt at the sport's festival came over him once again. The memories of the wastes that he tried so hard to bury kept showing their ugly heads.

Stain must have just barely grazed him. When he looked beside him, and glanced at Stain's blade, he understood. It was the blood that activated his Quirk. "You're trying to solve this like once of those fake heroes. You should know better than anyone why that won't work, but you're still trying to keep up your image. Have you gone soft? Either way, even if it's you, I can't stop my mission," he said as he walked towards Iida.

"Ed-E, get on him!" he commanded his robot. Like the good protector he was, he began firing his laser at Stain. Still, Ed-E was better suited for either distance, or for enemies of considerably less intelligence. Stain was able to deflect the shots with his sword before delivering a roundhouse to the bot. He flew across the alley before crashing to the ground. It would take a few seconds for him to recover, but in those seconds, Iida would be dead.

Before he could strike, however, he was forced back from a column of flame. "You're letting everyone else do the work for you, huh?" Stain asked him. He seemed to finally be getting frustrated.

"Midoriya, you need to give more details in times like this. I was almost too late to stop this guy," Todoroki said, holding up his phone. He was cocky, just like Midoriya was. If he had his plasma rifle with him, he supposed he would have been, too. Either way, texting the kid was a good plan, he'd decided.

"Todoroki, you too?" Iida asked.

"Thanks for showing up," Midoriya said. Ed-E beeped, agreeing with him. He noticed that he was using his left side, which meant that he'd done good at the festival, even if it put him in a negative position.

"Next time, try to send more than just your location. But since you're not the type to send cryptic messages, I figured you were in trouble, so I came to help."

God, he was cocky. He used his right side to lift them up and down with ice and get them out of the way. It was a good move. "Ed-E, help him out," he told the eyebot.

"The pro heros will be here any minute!" he said, rushing forward. Both he and the eyebot put up a good fight together, however reluctant Todoroki was to fight alongside the unknown robot.

"It's the blood, Todoroki. Don't let him get close to you, that's how he traps his enemies," Midoriya offered up.

"Got it, I'll have to keep him away," Todoroki answered.

"Stop it," Iida injected. "Why are you doing this? His fight is with me. I inherited my brother's name, I'm the one who should stop him. The hero killer is mine!"

So, Midoriya supposed that he still felt that need to get revenge. He shouldn't have been surprised, it was hard to quench that thirst.

"You're Ingenium now? Strange, the Ingenium I knew before never had that look on his face," Todoroki replied. That was good for Midoriya. It meant that he didn't have to be the only one to try and convince him otherwise.

It was then that Midoriya realized that he could move again. Just as Stain came down to strike that other hero, he jumped into action. Ed-E gave him a few happy beeps.

"I have a few theories as to why I can move again," he announced to the group. "But I think it's because of blood type. I was the last one effected, so it's really all that makes sense. I'm type O."

"If it helps, my blood type is B," the other hero said.

"I'm type A," Iida answered.

"You're smart, but I shouldn't have expected anything less from the likes of you," he said. Iida would undoubtedly ask why he and Stain seemed to know each other. He supposed it would only be fair to start explaining a few things. He could see all of them eyeing his robot suspiciously. He hoped that the hero would think it was a support item, and think nothing of it. But Todoroki and Iida would know something was up with it, and the fact that it only seemed to understand English.

"We should hold and wait for the pros," Todoroki said.

"If we work together, we can hold him off. Ed-E is our strong suit, since his Quirk can't work against a robot."

Todoroki eyed the thing. The way he looked at it reminded Midoriya of the way Arcade felt. Thinking about it, he could find a lot of resemblance between the two.

But he had no time to dwell on that thought. Stain charged at them, and they had to begin.

With three of them fighting, it was easier for Ed-E to get a shot in. Midoriya smirked as the laser hit his arm. Stain gasped in pain as his flesh burned, but it didn't hold him back for long.

His body froze up once more, so he tried to close out the memories that tried to come through his mind. There were other things that he needed to keep his mind on.

"If you want to make your brother proud, then stand up! Become the hero he wanted you to be!" Izuku heard Todoroki yell, which made him grit his teeth. He thought Todoroki would help him get _off_ the idea of defeating him.

Then he thought it through. Killing Benny may have changed him, but it also closed another door. The door that lead him savaging through the wastes with bloodlust. Had someone else killed Benny, then he wouldn't have changed. He wouldn't have been satisfied. If they could get Iida to at least incapacitate the villain, then that would have satisfied his need. He just needed to be sure that he wouldn't get any ideas of killing the man. That should have been Midoriya's job, and he should have done it a long time ago.

And just like that, Iida stood up. His powerful engine legs delivered a powerful kick to the villain.

"I won't let the two of your shed any more blood for me," he said.

"You can't change your morals in such a small time frame. You're still just a fake, and somebody has to teach you a lesson," he sneered.

"You're still batshit crazy, and your own morals are backwards," Midoriya said, then spat at his feet. If he could have flipped him off, he would have.

"No, he's right. I have no right to call myself a hero," he said. "But there's no way I can back down. If I die, the name Ingenium dies with me."

His heart was in the right place, that much was true. Still, if he tried to kill him, Izuku would have to get Ed-E to stop him.

As Iida took a knife to the arm, Midoriya felt that he could move again. After Iida kickstarted his engine, he took off. At the same time, Izuku leaped upwards. With their combined strengths, they both landed simultaneous blows to Stain.

As they started to drop, Iida landed a second blow.

And then it was over.

"Is it over?" Todoroki asked.

Ed-E beeped, a confirmation of his question.

The three of them found some rope, then tied up the hero killer after removing his weapons.

As Iida and Todoroki had their backs turned, Izuku started his own clean up. First, he told Ed-E to go back to sneak mode. He did as he was told, but he did so reluctantly. Then, he kneeled down. He pulled out his pistol, loaded and cocked it, then put it against Stain's forehead. Even though he was unable to fight, he could tell that he was still conscious. "Give me one reason that I shouldn't kill you right now," he said, his voice low. He was a much different person like this.

Stain grinned, even though he was weak. "I don't have one. Do it."

Izuku nodded, then put away the weapon. "That's all the reason I need to not do it."

BBB

As soon as they got out of the alley and into the street, they were greeted by a familiar sight. "What are you doing here, boy?" a small, yellow clad man asked.

"Hey, Gran Torino," he greeted as nonchalantly as he could.

Still, he received a foot to the face. "I thought I told you to stay on the bullet train!"

"Gran Torino?" Todoroki asked.

"He's the hero I'm interning with. How'd you get here, old man?" he asked the hero. He didn't seem to take offense to his brash greeting.

"I was told to come here. I have no idea what's going on, but I'm glad you're not dead."

"Ha, me too. Well, sorry for running off like that."

Soon after, another posse of heroes showed up. "Endeavor told us to come here right away, but…"

"Children?" another finished.

"Hey, look," a third one announced upon seeing Stain.

"Is that the hero killer?" they asked.

"We need to get to police on the line!"

As the heroes tried to sort things out, Iida came over to Todoroki and Midoriya, then bowed. "Guys. Because of me, you guys got hurt. I'm truly sorry. I was so angry…I couldn't think of anything else."

Yes, Midoriya had been in that same exact boat. The absolute need to track down his attempted murderer, just to enact some kind of revenge. "I'm sorry, too. I should have known what you were going through."

Not only that, had Midoriya killed him before, then none of this would have happened. Stain seemed so harmless at the time. It would have been easy. With a plasma rifle and his armor, there would be no way that he wouldn't have wiped the floor with him. By having those people around him, he had to limit himself to meek attacks.

As soon as it truly felt like it was over, was when something came around the corner. Midoriya barely had time to react before he felt claws did into his chest. The word _deathclaw_ rolled around in his mind as he spit up blood.

But it couldn't have been a deathclaw, because he was getting higher in the sky. The pain he felt limited his movements. "Fuck," he swore to himself. He was about to reach for his gun before he realized he didn't need to. He watched as Stain unwound himself from his rope, then licked the cheek of one of the pros. Then, slowly, he descended.

Before they even landed, Stain was upon them. He jabbed his knife into the brain of the creature. "You need to have the gull to kill when you need to, but I respect your willingness to stay dormant for the sake of others. Even if it puts yourself at a disadvantage, you always put others before yourself. That is what a true hero is."

Again, he was being praised by that wackjob. Where did he go so wrong as to earn this guy's attention?

The heroes prepared for a battle as Stain turned to them. It was then that Endeavor arrived. "You false hero. I'll make this right. These streets must run with the blood of hypocrites. Hero! I will reclaim that word. Come on! Just try and stop me you fakes! There's only one man out there who can kill me. He's a true hero. All Might is worthy!"

Stain's declaration froze the crowd. But, even then, there was nothing that needed to be done. He paused, frozen in place.

That image would be tucked away forever in Midoriya's brain, alongside his other memories of the Mojave. Something about that moment reminded him of the wasteland, of the people who lived in it. Their tenacity and strength, and their need for a hero of their homes. The struggle with Mr. House, and the threat of Caesar's Legion. They all spoke truths about the right path, one that Joshua Graham often had trouble understanding in his days of being in the Legion. One that he himself needed to find when he traversed the Divide. What was a hero?

Izuku shrugged the thought from his mind. The fight was over, and that was what mattered.


	8. Chapter 8

**Thank you everyone for the reviews and suggestions! I noticed that you guys seemed to like the idea of a different group of vigilantes, so I thought this might be a good way to intertwine one of the Vigilantes characters. (If you haven't read that manga, you should! It's a darker, more serious tone on the Hero Academia universe that I really like.)**

 **And Temp: You literally made my day.**

It wasn't long before the trio found themselves in the hospital. When he was asked to change into a hospital gown, Midoriya was able to hide his weapon within his clothing. Luckily, it didn't look like they were interested in searching their clothes.

At the hospital, they were treated for their injuries, and once again, a fuss was made about Midoriya's scarring. Soon enough, they got past it and let him be. At that point, he, Iida, and Todoroki were taken to the same room. Luckily for him, they were alone.

He sighed. "Iida, Todoroki, I feel like there are some things that I need to explain to you. First, I need you to promise that what you hear from me does not leave this room."

That got their attention. "What do you mean?" Todoroki asked.

"I think that it's time that I started explaining some things. I just don't want either of you to think any lower of me, because what I am about to talk about may seem rather…bizarre, and maybe even villain-like."

"Midoriya, I owe you deeply. As such, I will not allow myself to look upon you like a villain," Iida said.

"Same here," Todoroki agreed.

Another breath from Midoriya. This would be hard to explain. He hadn't explained any of this to All Might, either.

"During the USJ attack, I was warped away, only to reappear thirty minutes later. As far as I am aware, I was taken to a different world, one much different than this one. While you had only been missing me for half an hour, I was away from this world for two years." Izuku looked to read either of their faces, but they were quite stoic. "That world was different, it was more lawless than this one. The humans and creatures that roamed it were deadly, and it was a fight to survive every day. I was given a job one day. I was told to bring something to someone, who I will not talk about now. That thing was very important, and because of that, there was someone else who wanted it. To get it, he tried to kill me. If you look at my forehead, you can see the scar where he shot me. I survived, although with a bit of amnesia, and in vengeance, I sought the man out. I want to remind you that this is a different world, and that the laws were different there. In vengeance, when I found him, I killed him. And that's why, Iida, I didn't want you to do the same thing. That moment changed me, and not in a good way."

A heavy silence fell upon the room. Neither Iida nor Todoroki knew how to respond, and he couldn't say that he blamed them. "Sorry, Midoriya, but that's a lot to take in," Todoroki said. "Two years?"

Midoriya nodded. "I think so. It's still kind of blurry. I don't remember much about the first year."

"That explains why you didn't know who we were…" Iida trailed off.

"Why was it like that? Did they not have police, or was everyone more lax on laws there? Why didn't any heroes come to the scene?" Todoroki exploded with questions suddenly.

"The place I was in was called the Mojave wasteland. It was the remnants of Las Vegas, in America. 200 years prior to me arriving there, nuclear bombs destroyed the planet. Those who were left behind weren't like us. Also, I never once saw anybody else with a Quirk in that world."

"So…you've killed someone," Iida said, more of a statement than a question.

"Yes," Midoriya said with a straight face. He didn't expect either of them to understand.

"What did it feel like?" Iida continued. He was staring down, not at Midoriya.

"Horrible. After I did it…I regretted it. Even if he tried to kill me, even if he was a scumbag that deserved to die, the fact that I was the one that ended his life haunts me still."

A few moments of silence passed before Iida turned to look at him. He wore a small smile. "Thank you, Midoriya, for keeping me from that. Thank you for understanding what I was going through."

Midoriya nodded slowly. Of all the responses that he could have gotten, that was not one that he expected. "Of course."

"So…the robot…" Todoroki continued.

"I found him and fixed him up. He's been pretty handy to have around."

"Are robots common there?"

"Yes, robots were quite popular before-" before Midoriya could finish his sentence, the door to their room opened. In walked the chief of the police force. Their conversation would have to end there.

* * *

There was no way that it was real, right? These young kids before him couldn't possibly have been so inspired by him that they would resort to this, would they?

"C-c-c-courier six?" a young girl stuttered as she greeted him. She was a high schooler, maybe late middle school. She had bright pink hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. Then she wore a fox onigiri mask on her face. Through the slits, Midoriya could see that her eyes were pure gold.

There was another kid behind her. He had black, ruffled hair. He also wore an onigiri mask, although it was different from the girl's. They were obviously together in this endeavor of theirs.

Izuku had heard of a petty villain in the streets, and upon reaching the location he thought he would strike next, he found these two. They were probably also trying to get the villain, but instead, they'd scared him off. They probably weren't in any hero course.

"What are you two doing?" he asked. He tried to keep his voice monotonous. He hated that they had decided to do this, but he wasn't one to say anything.

The girl's eyes glanced down at his plasma rifle before looking back at his face. "W-well, we thought that what you were doing was…was cool! So we thought…with our Quirks…" the girl started, but soon enough, the guy behind her took over.

"Our Quirks weren't good enough to get into a hero course. But we know other ways to fight villains, so why shouldn't we?"

Midoriya gritted his teeth. It was a good thing that they couldn't see his face. "No, you shouldn't be out here dealing with villains by yourself. You're inexperienced, who's to say that you won't get killed?"

"But-"

"What are your Quirks?"

"My Quirk requires another person…I can act as a conduit and strengthen another Quirk, as long as it's an emitter Quirk," the girl explained. It seemed like a good Quirk, but it was likely that it hurt her in turn.

"My Quirk is called Precision. I can usually strike a target, from whatever distance, but with her, it's almost guaranteed."

"And what are you using to 'strike your target?'"

The kid pulled something out of his pockets. In his hands were some beautifully ornate throwing knives.

Really, they didn't have bad Quirks. In fact, in theory, they would work well together. The problem, it seemed, lay in the foundation of this society of heroes. Hero courses were difficult to get into, and not for good reason. It seemed that the way they were testing kids wasn't based on merit or skill, but on whether their Quirk was practical in specific situations. Shinsou, for example, had an amazing Quirk. But, because it wasn't practical against robots, then he was shunned from the hero course. And, because the girl didn't seem to be doing anything, she likely wouldn't get any credit for her work.

But still, that didn't excuse their actions. "While your reasons are noble, you still have no business being out like this. You can still get hurt."

"And I'd have to agree," came a voice from behind Midoriya. As he turned around, he could only glimpse at her landing. She had dull pink hair pulled into pigtails on the side of her head. Her costume left little to the imagination, especially the rear.

"Pop Step," Midoriya greeted. He'd never met her before, but he knew about her. She was a rambunctious vigilante, although she usually spent her time delivering impromptu concerts to her fans. With her Quirk, it was easy for her to escape as soon as the police rolled around. Still, she was known to aid every once in a while with other vigilantes.

"Courier Six," she greeted back. She didn't seem to be too friendly towards him. "You kids need to go home. Hang up the masks, put away the weapons, and don't pick them up again unless you are trained. Got it?"

The kids nodded frantically before running off. Was the gun not scary enough?

"And you," Pop Step said, turning to Midoriya. "I know you think that what you're doing it right, but it's not. I'm not going to do anything, but you're going to get killed one of these days."

"No, I don't think I will. Why do you even care what I do?"

Pop Step pursed her lips and crossed her arms, then adjusted her weight onto one foot. "You give a bad name to us vigilantes. We don't come out here to kill people, we do what we know is right. You're single handedly blurring the lines between people like us, and people like Stain."

"I've never called myself a vigilante. I didn't come out here to play it safe and uphold reputations. If that's all you care about, then you're no hero-or vigilante. You're just a face that likes to show up when there are cameras."

"The people need faces that they can trust! What about All Might? The Symbol of Peace? People need something that they can look up to."

"All Might isn't the Symbol of Peace because he has a pretty face. He's earned that title for his hard work. He works outside of the camera as much as he does on it. If you can't see a difference, then you're insane," Midoriya continued. All Might was a soft spot for him. There was no way he couldn't defend the man, especially after everything that he'd done for him.

Pop Step sighed. "Just remember the effect you're going to have when you go out and do this. These kids aren't the only ones picking up weapons. And if any kids get hurt because of this? That's on you."

Before Midoriya could even think of replying, she took off. It only took one jump for her to soar above him and onto the rooftops. It was a useful Quirk to have for someone who needed to leave in a snap.

He sighed before crossing his arms. Things were starting to get complicated.


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey everyone! I feel like I should start this off with a not-so-short announcement. I just want you all to know that if you don't like this story for personal reasons (ie. you don't like the choices I made deciding where the story is going), that I'm not forcing you to read this. If you decide that you don't like this story, it's really easy to exit out of it. That being said, I do enjoy constructive criticism. My suggestion to you, and this goes for any story on FanFiction, is this: if you don't like the way a story is going, write it yourself. I don't mean this in the mean way; I mean it quite literally. That's the whole darn point of this website. It's to explore ideas and worlds that were given to us by others. And let me tell you, I ain't here to write a masterpiece. So, if you don't like what I'm doing, you write what you want! I really can't be here writing what everyone wants, because you're all different people. Don't expect me to start over or do something completely different for no other reason than "I don't like it." By leaving non-constructive reviews on my story, it is a waste of both of our times. One: I don't want to be mean, but I don't really care if you don't like the story. I already know that this story isn't for everyone. Two: why leave a review like that when you can be writing something else? You could be writing your own fantastical stories instead of wasting time on one that you don't like. This website has the potential to be a thriving source of inspiration and imagination. Don't ruin it with your boring-ass reviews.**

 **And really, most of you have had nothing but awesome ideas and thoughts in the reviews. I really enjoy reading them! This is just a heads up for any and every story that you ever read on this website. I'm confident in saying that a lot of authors probably feel the same way that I do. Just remember this: if you don't like it, exit out of the story, then write it yourself. Easy! This whole website would be better for it.**

 **Aaaaaaaaaand after all that, let's get back to the story. This is the last chapter before the story finally splits from the timeline. I'm so excited to get the next chapter out!**

Soon enough, it was back to the daily grind at UA. Although it was still taxing, Midoriya had to admit that it was refreshing to be out of the dank alleys, and back in a brightly lit classroom. His classmates were chatting about their internships. He had to admit, the hair that Bakugo was now sporting did earn a chuckle out of him. It was even better that Sero and Kirishima were bothering him about it. It was fun to see him interact with those in this class. No longer was he the guy on top, like he'd been his whole life. It was frustrating for him, but it also enabled him to grow.

Then, it was back to practical lessons. With this, he could start to really improve his Quirk. If he stayed at 5%, then he could still easily have one of the better Quirks of the bunch. Still, he would need to improve his skill.

That was proven when he slipped on a small pipe, then plummeted towards the ground. He ended up coming in last for that one, but at the very least, he was still making progress. That, and his classmates were certainly impressed with his new moves.

When he looked up again, he could see All Might in front of him. Everyone else had left, so it was just those two. "You surprised me. That was incredible. Find me after class, we need to talk," he told him with a subtle thumbs up. Even then, he sounded serious. "The time has come for me to tell you the whole truth. About me, and One for All."

And that was how Midoriya found himself in the lounge with All Might. He didn't get away from his classmates very easy, not after they saw the scars that littered his body in the changing room. He'd been good at changing subtly, but he was distracted after what All Might told him. Iida and Todoroki had stayed silent, which he was grateful for. He played it off by saying that it was a few accidents that he'd been in, which most of them accepted without question. Still, he could feel Bakugo's eyes on him. He wondered what he could have been thinking.

"You've been through a lot recently. I'm sorry I wasn't around to help you. Especially after…"

Midoriya didn't want him to even try to finish that. "No, it's not your fault. However…you mentioned One for All earlier…"

"I heard that the hero killer swallowed your blood in the attack. Do you remember what I said to you the day I gave you One for All?"

"Eat this," he said in the most All Might voice he could muster. Considering that he'd been practicing it for years, he had it down pretty good.

"No, not that! I said the key was in my DNA. That's why you had to swallow the hair," All Might continued. So, now he understood what he was getting at.

"So you're concerned I might think that I accidentally passed One for All on to Stain."

"Yes, exactly."

"Well, I figured that it wasn't the case when some drunk soldier took a bite out of my arm about a year ago."

All Might continued to explain how the Quirk worked. He said that the key to passing the Quirk on was in the DNA of the holder, but it could only be passed down if the holder willed it. Then, he explained the origin on One for All, and how it came to be from another Quirk. All Might explained All for One, a man who could steal Quirks from others. He was talking about when Quirks were first starting to show up; he talked about how society decayed and stalled.

What All Might was staying struck Midoriya as something familiar. He knew about the time period in which Quirks manifested, he'd been forced to learn about it in middle school. However, it reminded him so much of the Mojave. The fear, the uncertainty. The lack of progress. For God's sakes, slave trading had become normal, just as much as crucifixion. This world may have looked different, but at its core, it was the same as the wasteland.

Then All Might continued to explain All for One and his younger brother, and the forced merging of two Quirks.

Well, that was a lot to take in all at once. Midoriya never expected the Quirk to have so much _backstory_ to it.

"But he's got to be dead, right?" he asked.

"He has a Quirk that can take other's powers. Somewhere along the line, he picked up a Quirk that could stop the aging process. The fact of the matter is, when it got down to my turn, I thought I had finally defeated him. But I was wrong. He's recently shown up again as the mastermind behind the league of villains. Now, someday you'll have to fight him. I'm sorry-"

"I can do it," Midoriya interrupted. "There's nothing more that I could have hoped for…a purpose. A reason to go out into those streets to fight for what's right. All Might, these past two years have been rough, I won't lie. I didn't ask for any of it. But I did my best, and I helped win a war against an even greater evil than you can imagine. So I will face this man with everything I have, because that evil doesn't deserve to be on these streets. As long as you have my back, then I can do anything."

There was a silence that hung over them. That look on All Might's face…he knew it well. All Might didn't expect to be there for very long. But, still, he smiled. "Thank you," he answered.

Midoriya knew that he was keeping that from him, but that wasn't his baggage to unpack. If he didn't want to talk about it, then so be it. All Might saw him out the door.

He sighed. At each and every moment, it seemed as though things just kept getting more and more complicated.

* * *

Next in Midoriya's life came the finals. Afterwards, there was a promised summer camp for those who passed. Although it didn't seem like it would be very productive, he was kind of excited for it.

The written portion of the exam wasn't anything for Midoriya to worry about. Even after being out of practice for a while, it was easy for him to slip back into his role as a student.

The practical, however…

He and Bakugo shared surprised looks. Midoriya's eyes scanned between him and All Might…who they were apparently fighting.

Maybe it would have been easier if Midoriya was the meek kid he was two years ago. Bakugo had a more dominant personality.

Now, he had little patience to deal with Bakugo.

Even as their exam began, Bakugo was already testing him. He silently trudged forward.

"Kacchan, we need to talk about this exam," he said as he walked closer. He didn't really want to work with Bakugo, but he had no choice. "We probably can't take on All Might. Our best option is to run away."

"Stop following me," Bakugo said, frustration evident in his tone.

Izuku ignored it. "Seriously, this isn't something that we can do"

"I'm not going to run away from this fight. It'll look better if we blast that smile off his face."

They're bickering continued until eventually Bakugo swung his arm at him. Caught off guard, the gauntlet collided with his chest.

"I don't want to hear another word. Just because you're getting stronger doesn't mean to get to tell me what to do."

"Grow the fuck up!" Midoriya shouted suddenly. "This isn't some game, this isn't a test of power, this is a mock up of a real life situation. And if you can't take it seriously, or even bother to listen to another, then you have no chance of ever becoming a hero!"

Now, that struck a chord within Bakugo. Izuku wouldn't be surprised if a blood vessel popped. "The hell did you just say to me?" Bakugo said before coming towards him.

"If you want to play at this, then I'll go to the gate myself. Then, since we didn't _work together_ at all, like the teachers _said_ this test was going to be about, we'll both fail. I swear to God I'll do it."

Bakugo grabbed him by the collar. He was so angry, he was shaking. "Do whatever you want. Just know, that if you want to spend your time ignoring or hurting me, then you're no better than a villain," Midoriya finished. He held eye contact with Bakugo.

There was pure anger in his eyes. Then, he dropped him. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a sudden gust of wind. Or, more like a hurricane. Concrete was torn up in its wake. Both Midoriya and Bakugo were thrown backwards.

Finally, All Might had shown up.

"Let's go, Bakugo," he tried to coerce the kid into following him, but it didn't seem to work.

All Might came forward, but Bakugo held his ground. What ensued was a small fight, which was over fairly quickly. Next, All Might was upon him. He jumped out of the way, but knocked right into Bakugo. The both of them fell, but it was a quick recovery.

But he had little time for a breather. There was suddenly a huge weight on his back. All Might had pinned him to the ground with some of the scrap metal laying around. For Bakugo, the hero delivered a punch straight to his gut. Bakugo flew backwards, which caused him to throw up.

Now that was a hard blow.

All Might had started talking, but Midoriya could barely hear. He only caught the tail end of what Bakugo said.

"If I need the help of a weakling like him, then I'd rather lose."

And that was not going to do. Being in the wasteland, a courier had to rely on the support of others. If not companions, he needed caravans and settlements to be on his side. There was no way to survive in a place like that without leaning on somebody. The audacity Bakugo had to feel that he should be able to survive on his own…it struck a chord within him. Without him realizing it, he'd activated his Quirk. He flew across the road, only to deliver a punch to Bakugo's face. God it felt good. "Don't you dare say that you asshole! We can win this!"

Afterwards, Bakugo rolled to the ground. Midoriya picked him up before heading back into an alley.

Obviously, Bakugo didn't like that. He punched him in a forced effort to get down.

"Honestly, I don't know a single way to win this match. But we can at least try using my power. You're a jackass for wanting to quit before even trying."

"I don't know what happened to you…how you got stronger, or why you're lying to everyone, or why you suddenly think that you can talk back, but it doesn't mean you can just start giving me orders."

"Lying…?"

"Those…those scars you have. And the haircut. Everything about you changed after that attack. I don't know why you're lying to everyone. I know damn well you never had those before."

"Is that what this is about? I promise I've never lied, but the truth is even harder to believe."

Bakugo growled. "Don't toy with me!"

Midoriya sighed. "Fine. But if you don't believe me, that's your problem. The place I was warped to was a different world, and I was there for two years. It wasn't nice. I got shot, I've been lobotomized, I've had bombs strapped around my neck, and many other things. But that's not what matters right now-"

"What the hell does any of that mean? You got shot? Why would anybody waste their time," Bakugo spat on the ground. There was a little bit of blood mixed in with the saliva.

"Because I was carrying a chip that could militarize the entirety of Las Vegas. It's really not a big deal. The guy who asked me to bring it is dead and the man who shot me is dead. Really, two years is a long time, and I don't have the time to tell you everything. Especially not here."

Bakugo growled. "Fine. Listen to me, because I'm not going to fucking repeat myself. All Might is fast, even if we tried to run he'd stop us. The only way to stop him is a full blown attack. So here's the plan…"

It wasn't a bad one.

As All Might ran by, Bakugo intervened. He flew out behind and fired some blasts at him. Then, while All Might was distracted, Midoriya came in from behind. He had one of Bakugo's gauntlets, which he fired at All Might at point blank. The kickback was bad, but he got over it. While All Might was down, even for that moment, the both of them took off.

But it wasn't quite enough. Just as they neared the gate, All Might was upon them once again. First order of business, he destroyed the gauntlets. Then, he punched Bakugo into a nearby building. Just as he came back, All Might grabbed Midoriya by the arm before using him a weapon. He swung him round before hitting Bakugo with his body.

He hadn't felt that much pain in a long time.

His body went limp. With his brain all jumbled, he could hardly differentiate between reality and his intrusive memories. All Might tossed him, but kept his foot on top of Bakugo.

Deep breaths, Midoriya told himself. His mind had drifted to his journey on Black Mountain. It was the first time he'd seen a nightkin, and it certainly wasn't his last. Because of their camouflage abilities, he wasn't able to see the first one sneak up on him. Before he could do anything, it had grabbed him and threw him to one of its companions. It had its super sledge in hand, ready to hit him like a baseball. And then he did, which caused his ribs to break in numerous spots. He had Arcade to thank again for that miraculous recovery.

Deep breaths, he told himself as he got up. Hopefully nobody would notice. What good was a hero with PTSD? He forced himself though it, no matter how hard.

Then, a huge explosion came from Bakugo. All Might was forced off of him.

Bakugo grabbed him by the collar again. "Get ready to fly. I don't like the idea of running, but with the crapfest we're in right now, this is the only way to pass the practical. Now die!" he shouted, just before throwing Midoriya towards the gate.

It was possible for him to make it if All Might was still in the air. But, he was wrong. As All Might collided against him, his back contorted. If it weren't metal, he wondered if it would have broken. Instead of the gate, he collided with a bus.

The memories kept flowing in with no way to stop. Deep breath deep breath deep breath deep breath.

He tried to focus on anything besides the thoughts going through his mind. He watched as Bakugo made a huge explosion, one that seemed to be just within his limit. "Deku go! Hurry up!"

Even then, he was still able to keep fighting. "Make yourself useful!"

He had to get beyond the memories.

Then, when All Might forced him to the ground, he was able to focus. He propelled himself forward, into All Might. He probably could have made it to the gate, but it wasn't the gate that got him to focus. He snatched Bakugo, then ran through the gate.

And just like that, they won.


	10. Chapter 10

**Are you guys getting your PMs? I've messaged a few of you, but I have yet to receive a response from anybody.**

 **Anyway, here's the chapter that's going to change this story henceforth. Let me know if you were expecting me to do this. I've been planning this out since about day two.**

In lieu of their victory, and upcoming camping trip, the students of 1A decided that a trip to the mall was in order. The break from both hero and night work was definitely a must for Midoriya. After everyone else split up to look for things they wanted, it was only Midoriya and Uraraka left.

"What are you looking for? I'm hoping to find some heavier weights to up my training," Midoriya asked her, innocently enough.

"I mostly just need bug spray. Gotta keep those pest away!" she said, before taking off.

Midoriya furrowed his brows and tilted his head. That was sudden.

But, even though he was left alone, he could still use the breather. Sometimes, being around his classmates was exhausting.

"Oh, it's someone from UA, nice," said a voice. It wasn't uncommon for people to notice them in public.

Midoriya tried to find who the voice belonged to, but it looked as though he found Midoriya fist. He was clad in a black hoodie, which was pulled over his head. Suddenly, he draped his arm over his shoulder. "You were the one that got beat to hell at the sport's festival, right?"

Is that what people remembered him for? Not the robot, or the quick thinking, but the match between him and Todoroki?

"Uh, yeah," he answered.

"Aren't you one of the students who ran into the Hero Killer in the Hosu incident, too? You're practically famous."

Something was off. "You sure know a lot about me."

"What can I say, I'm just a big fan of yours. I can't believe I'm running into you again."

Warning bells started going off in his head. "It makes me think it might not be a coincidence."

Midoriya's eyes looked upwards, and he knew exactly who had his arm around him. "No, no, this feels like it's destiny."

His hand moved upward, then onto Midoriya's neck. "Oh, right, from your point of view we haven't met since the attack on UA." And that was over two years ago to Midoriya, so it was no wonder he didn't recognize him at first.

He made eye contact with Shigaraki. "Why don't we spend some time catching up, Izuku Midoriya?"

He didn't have much choice. "Act natural, don't make a scene, I'm just an old friend who ran into you at the mall. I think we should have a conversation about where you've been. Of course, if you try to run or fight me in any way, well it will be fast. Soon as all five of my fingers touch your neck, your throat will be the first thing that disintegrates. In a matter of seconds, you'll be nothing more than dust and powdered bone."

"A hero will catch you if you do something like that," he replied. As threatening as the man was, he didn't hold a candle to Caesar.

"I don't doubt that. But, after you, I could kill twenty, thirty, maybe even more before a pro showed up and managed to stop me."

"Okay, I get your point. Let's talk,"

Shigaraki chuckled. "Isn't that nice? Follow me slowly, we're going to sit down and get comfortable."

Shigaraki led them to a bench. Sitting there made Midoriya anxious. He had both his pistol and his plasma rifle with him, but any kind of movement would have easily tipped Shigaraki off.

"So, Kurogiri told us that you had been to a place not quite on this earth. It's a pretty shitty place, I have to admit. The air stank, the people sucked, and the creatures were absolutely dreadful."

"So you've given the old Mojave a visit, huh?"

"Enough to hear stories about you. Even in a world like that, and you still wanted to help people."

"What's this all about? You want me to give you a grand tour of Shitland USA?"

"No, I just thought you might have some insight. You know, about some of the creatures there. See, they have this great big potential. They can easily kill people here, don't you think? And there's no repercussions, no jail time. Just good 'ole fashioned monsters."

"What-"

"Deku?" a female voice said. No, that was Uraraka.

Fuck. Just as she started to notice who Shigaraki was, he let go. "It's too late anyway," he said. Two portals opened up in that instant. One took Shigaraki away, the other introduced something else.

There, in the middle of the mall's courtyard, stood the mother of all beasts. A deathclaw, one of the worst things he could have ever hoped for. Midoriya's Geiger counter in his Pip-Boy started making small ticking noises.

Shrill screams filled his ears just before the deathclaw let out an earth-shaking roar. Most of the civilians had enough sense to run away or take shelter. Uraraka, however, was frozen in place. An easy target, which the deathclaw spotted immediately. It was about to swing at her, but Midoriya threw himself in front of her. Just like before, its claws sunk into his chest. Still, he didn't have time to concern himself with it.

"Deku!" she shouted.

"Get back!" he replied. He snatched a stimpak from his bag before jamming it into his chest. Then, he grabbed the rifle from the bottom of the bag. He designed the folding element so that an easy flick extended and locked each part back to its original size. Then, he loaded the rifle. All of that took only a couple seconds, so by the time that the deathclaw rose its claw to strike again, Izuku was ready.

One shot to the chest caused it to stagger. It didn't do too much overall damage, though. The belly was probably the best place to aim, since it was the deathclaw's soft spot, but a head shot would do just as much damage with a plasma rifle.

He lined up the head of the deathclaw with his sights, then pulled the trigger. It took a few shots, but eventually the beast fell to the ground. Its massive body cracked the concrete beneath it.

"Deku, what was that thing? And what is _that_ thing?" Uraraka asked. First she'd gestured to the deathclaw, then to his weapon. Nobody else seemed to be around, except for her. There was pure fear in her eyes. It wasn't something that Midoriya ever wanted to see.

He folded up the rifle before shoving it into his bag. If Uraraka had to witness something like this, and if Shigaraki had access to whatever was in the wastes, then it was probably time to start offering up some answers.

* * *

"A deathclaw?" the officer asked him. First and foremost, it was difficult to convince the officers that what he had killed was not, in fact, a person. In such a vast society filled with many different kinds of people, something like that could have easily passed for a person. Of course, the radiation and DNA testing proved him right eventually.

"Yeah, that's what everyone calls them. I think they're evolved from chameleons"

"And you think the league of villains has access to these things?" he asked again. The police officer seemed nervous. Deku couldn't blame him. He didn't like the idea of deathclaws being here either, but that wasn't even the start of their problems.

"Well, yeah, but that's certainly not the only thing. Raiders, radscorpions, nightkin, and even cazadores are within their grasp."

"And…what are those things?"

"A raider is someone who kills people to get what they want, instead of bargaining. Radscorpions are like scorpions, except large. Nightkin are…well…big, mutated people who are very mean and are kind of dumb, who are also masters of camouflage. A cazador is if all of God's wrath was stuck into a huge wasp. And that's not everything; there's a whole wasteland of creatures and people that he could use."

The police officer swallowed hard. "Is there a particularly effective way to defeat them?"

"You mean besides killing them? No. It's best to shoot on sight."

"Well, we can't just go killing everything that we think might be from there. If we can't identify it right away, then we don't have the jurisdiction."

"They won't hesitate to kill you. Honestly, fighting a beast wouldn't be hard for any pro hero. The issue lies with two factors. One is the radiation. The reason these creatures exist is because animals evolved to survive through the fallout. Two, the cazadores can kill a person in one sting. They are _highly_ volatile creatures. The only bright side is that I don't think the league of villains has the ability to obtain them. Any other creature is easy, but a bug like that would be the hardest."

Izuku went on to explain every wasteland creature or threat that he could think of. He gave descriptions of their appearance, their threat level, their weaknesses, and even drew pictures to accompany each description. By the end of it, they had pages upon pages of information.

The officer leaned back in his seat before sighing. Their night had drug on and on. To properly inform and prepare those around him for what they might be seeing, Midoriya had to dive into the nitty gritty. With the league of villains' ability to hop between worlds, there was no limit to what could have been brought back with them. Even things like spore carriers, although rare, were described in detail. "Okay, I think that's about all we can do tonight. Go home, kid. We'll let you know if we need any more information."

Midoriya was happy to oblige. Come tomorrow, he would have a lot of questions to answer.

* * *

Although the students were supposed to be leaving for their camping trip that morning, they were told to meet in their classroom. From there, role would be taken, and they would be on their way. With nothing else to do, Midoriya's classmates were more than happy to gather around his desk. He could tell they were still young and excitable fans – they liked to hear about new threats that their favorite heroes fought against. They spread that information around amongst themselves and on message boards. He used to be like that, too.

"Midoriya, what was that thing?" came the very first question. He was pretty sure that it was from Hagakure, although it was hard to tell when invisible people spoke.

"It's called a deathclaw. It's an evolved chameleon from a different world."

"Don't play around like that, Midoriya," Sero said. "Where's it really from?"

"I'm not playing around. That creature is from the Mojave Wasteland."

"What's that? Some kind of lab thing?" Denki asked. All of the others also wore slightly puzzled looks on their faces. Outside of the ring of students, Midoriya could see both Iida and Todoroki. Neither were in the circle, but he could tell that they were listening closely.

"No, it's a different world. Or a parallel universe. Something like that."

"And how would you know?" Mina asked with her hands on her hips.

"Because I was there for about two years. During the attack on the USJ, while I was only gone for half an hour to you guys, I was gone for about two years in their time."

There was a moment of silence before everyone exploded. Each and every one of them doubted him, although they did still seem curious about the situation. "Look," he interjected by putting out his wrist. "This is a Pip-Boy, something I was given over there."

He fiddled with the computer until a map popped up on the screen. Tons of spots were marked on the crude overlay, each containing notes about those locations. During his journey, he noted the terrain, what kind of things were living inside, and what things he was able to find and scavenge. It seemed useless now, but he at least had something to show.

While everyone was trying to get in close to check out what was on the screen, someone must have knocked the device. There was a click before a recording started to play.

"Are we really gonna do this? It's open, we could just leave," came a voice from his Pip-Boy. Izuku pulled the device back to him before stopping the recording.

"Oops, sorry about that," he apologized while fiddling with the knobs.

"Who was that?" Kirishima asked him.

Midoriya waved his hand. "Someone who died a long time ago. I found the recording when I was scavenging."

"Can we listen to it?" Denki asked.

Well, there really wasn't any reason not to. So, Midoriya went back and played the recording for them. It was short and didn't hold a lot of intrinsic value, but it was still harrowing. It was only five people, talking about telling people about what happened. The students jumped a little when they heard the gunshots at the end of it.

"What were they talking about? What happened?" Tsuyu asked. Midoriya barely noticed her in the crowd around him.

He sighed. Where would he even begin? "Well, first, I need to explain a lot of information. One, the Mojave Wasteland is suffering from the backlash of atomic warfare. The Great War took place two hundred years before I had gotten there. As such, before the war, there were privatized fallout shelters built to protect those who were lucky enough to be accepted in."

His classmates were nodding. It may have been difficult to believe, but they were still with him. "However, many of these shelters-vaults-were built to run tests on unknowing victims. Each vault had it own cruel and unusual experiment. This recording is from one of these vaults, which had been long abandoned by the time I made it there. Shortly, I found out that this vault had a particular need. They were required to make one human sacrifice each year. If they didn't, they were told that the life support systems would be shut down. This was done until only five inhabitants of the vault were left alive. At that point, they denied the vault its sacrifice. When they did so, the vault congratulated them. It opened the door, and told them that they were free to go and return at any time they chose. The vault had wanted them to disobey. In shame, four of those five survivors committed suicide. That's what you just heard. I have no idea what happened to the fifth."

There was nothing that his classmates could say. They didn't really understand the wasteland, or the old world, so it affected them more than it did him. Soon after, they returned to their seats with gloom expressions. He may have ruined that hour for them, maybe even the whole day.

If they wanted to know more about the wasteland, then he would have been happy to tell them. He just didn't think that anybody would dare to ask anymore.


	11. Chapter 11

**I'm sorry for the long wait. My birthday was earlier this week, and college has been kicking my ass lately. But I finally got through my shit and wrote this up! Thanks for sticking around for this long, I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

Midoriya was never _un_ popular within class 1A. He had only been there for a semester, but he'd made friends with a good majority of the class. Still, he did tend to spend his time with a select few individuals. Iida and Uraraka were his main friends, and Todoroki gravitated towards them every once in a while.

On that bus, however, he seemed to be the center of gravity, and it wasn't because Uraraka was sitting next to him. The rest of his classmates were leaned over their seats or hunched forward to get closer to him. Even if his stories were depressing, they still found an acute interest in them. He decided that it was likely a fascination with a world that they'd never touched, like how someone watched a movie or played a video game. Sure, the stories were interesting, but it wasn't something that they ever wanted to experience.

Uraraka was the only one who'd even came close, and she was still shaken up about it. She hadn't distanced herself, but she didn't ask any questions. Even as the other students were talking about it, she began to fidget. Her eyes wouldn't meet with anyone. If he were being honest, Midoriya didn't know how to comfort her. He only knew guns as a comfort object, something that she probably wouldn't agree with.

"Wait, wait, wait…" Kaminari said to get everyone's attention. Most of the eyes on that bus turned to him. "So, what's the weirdest thing that you've ever seen?"

Well, that question was obvious. "That would probably be when I had my brain, spine, and heart removed by a bunch of robots and had to convince my brain to come back with me."

That response got a few laughs. They probably didn't think that he was being serious. To them, it seemed like a far-fetched fantasy.

"So, you got them back, right?" Kirishima asked. A grin was tugging at the edge of his lips. He had such a flexible personality that he was able to blend in to nearly any group. There was just something inherently likable about him.

"Well, I finally convinced my brain to come back. But, I liked the implants, so I kept them instead."

"What about people? Were there some weird people that you met?" Sero asked a different question.

"Yes…I knew a lot of people. And things. There were a few people that would follow me around, and I'd definitely be dead without them. Arcade, Boone, Cass, Raul… there were a lot of them. But weird people? Well, there was a group of Elvis impersonators that lived there, although they were more of a gang than anything. Their leader let me borrow his cyborg dog every once in a while, since I did find the dog a new brain."

There were a few more chuckles. "What's up with all the brains, Midoriya?" Kaminari asked.

Midoriya smirked. "I think that's all the brains I dealt with, really. But you asked for people, specifically. I've also met a toaster bent on world domination."

That reply got quite a few more laughs. Really, if he hadn't experienced any of that stuff first hand, then he would have also thought that it was a joke. There was nothing reasonable about what he was recounting. And yet, it was all true. He hoped that they would never completely understand.

* * *

After getting off the bus, the students were expected to make their way through the big forest by themselves. One of the Pussycat member's quirk allowed for the creation of earthy monsters in the forest. Of course, it wasn't surprising that they would create such a challenge for them. With both the heightened villain activity and the new wasteland threats, it was essential that the fledgling heroes be pushed towards graduation.

Upon their arrival at the camp, they were met with a delicious meal. The students all scarfed it down. Afterwards, they found their luggage from the bus. When Midoriya loaded the awkwardly large eyebot onto the bus, he'd gotten a few looks. Now that they could get a good look at it, they started crowding around him _again_. He didn't even let them ask any questions before he powered ED-E up.

The robot rose from the group. He gave a few happy beeps to Midoriya before turning around and looking at the students around him. "His name is ED-E. I found and fixed him up. He's a prototype combat model. He's been through a lot in his lifetime."

"What was wrong with him?" Tokoyami asked him.

ED-E probably would have replied if he understood what they were saying. Having been created in the wastes, he was only programmed in English. "I'm fairly sure he was shot a few times. Just some raiders wanting some target practice, and a robot traveling the entire continental United States was a good target."

"Raiders…?" a few students muttered to themselves. That was Midoriya's bad; it was hard to explain anything without explaining the backstory of ten other things.

"They're just people who would rather kill and enslave rather than work for their own money and food. They've given me more than enough scars to count." Midoriya then switched tongues before turning to ED-E. "Go ahead and scout out the perimeter. Remember: harm, but don't kill."

ED-E immediately took off, and with the robot went the interest of the students. That was, except for one. As the other students disbursed, Uraraka stepped forward. She was nervously playing with her hands. "Hey, Deku."

"Hey, Uraraka. What's up?"

"Well…I was wondering if I could talk to you. About…that day."

Midoriya looked around him, then picked the best place for them to sit down. "Yeah, let's sit."

As Uraraka sat down, she kept to herself. Her movements were tight, and she was anything but relaxed. Midoriya couldn't blame her. "So, I know that everyone else thinks that this stuff is cool, but it's not. That thing, whatever it was, wasn't something that I could ever joke about it. So _why_ do you keep talking about it as if it's some kind of fantasy? Why lie to them?"

"This isn't the answer that you want, but I'm not. I haven't lied about anything. I know it sounds stupid, but that's just how that world worked."

She stared down at her feet, not at all convinced. "No, it's not the answer I want. There's no way that you could have had your whole brain removed, or even communicate with it. And how about the toaster? Why would that exist? And the dog?"

It was no wonder that him talking about those things bothered her. It wasn't that they just seemed improbable, it was that he wasn't focusing on the dismal existence of the wastes. He only briefly mentioned the deadly and horrific elements of the Mojave. "Look," he said as he parted some of his hair. "I don't know if you can see it, but it's a faint scar from my lobotomy." He turned around, then pulled down the neck of his shirt, just enough to get a glimpse of the long surgical scar spanning his back. "And this is where my spine was removed." He turned back around to look at her face. She stared back at him with her large eyes, but they were tired. "It doesn't seem real, believe me, I know. But the technology they had was so far beyond our own. The doctors who I was working with to get my brain back were robots with _only_ brains in them. When I talk about this kind of stuff, it's not because it was funny. In fact, that was hell. In that particular place, the Big MT, there were quite a few lobotomites. Except they weren't like me, they couldn't retain consciousness. There was a suit that they had, called the trauma override harness. Even though these people had gone through such an extreme trauma, the suit would move them anyway. It turns out that when they died, the suit continued to work. That's what was trying to kill me the entire time I was there. I'm not making anything up, I'm just choosing to ignore the things that weren't so pleasant."

Uraraka was silent for a moment. Part of his words had gotten through to her. "But if you've been through that stuff, like that…thing, why would you continue to talk about it? Why do you keep answering their questions?"

"I wasn't really planning on it. I didn't think anybody would ever need to know. Uraraka, I'm sorry that you had to see that deathclaw. But that's not the end of it, not anywhere close. Shigaraki's been there, and he has access to anything from there. I can't afford to keep anything to myself."

She still seemed frustrated. " _How_ can you do it, though?"

There were a few answers that he could give. "Well, one is because I have to. Two, it doesn't bother me as much as it would you, mainly because of my amnesia. Three, because I learned an important lesson about old world blues."

"Old world blues?"

"It's the idea of holding on to the past, and yearning for a world that doesn't belong to us." Midoriya chuckled. "I suppose our classmates could learn a thing or two about it. After being there for so long, I had given up hope of ever getting home. So, I learned to adapt and live in that world. While it's strange for you to see or hear about these things, it's strange for me to be away from them."

Uraraka slowly nodded. "Thanks. That explains a lot. You aren't the Deku that everyone knew, are you?"

He knew she was right. Still, her words still stung. More so, Uraraka usually wore a bright smile on her face, but in that moment, she seemed tired. She'd probably been lying awake at night trying to make sense of everything, and today only made it worse. He might have felt the same way when he first arrived in the Mojave, except that he couldn't afford to dwell on those thoughts. Instead, he shoved his emotions aside in favor of survival. "No, I'm not the same. I'd like to say that I've improved since returning; I've smiled here far more often than I used to."

"Was it the old world blues that changed you? Or…what specifically?" Although far more serious than their classmate counterparts, she was starting to show more interest in his whereabouts. Her interest was different, though. She wasn't interested in entertainment, she wanted to know as much about that world because she knew she would have to fight someday.

"It was everything all at once. When I was warped there, I woke up in a place called Primm. The old man that ran the Mojave Outpost there took me in after he saw me wandering in to town. He was more than happy to give me a job. First, he had me clean up. Then, he taught me how to fire a gun. Finally, after a month or so, he entrusted me with a few jobs. I don't remember too much about it. About a year in, when I'd been given a package to deliver, I was intervened by a man named Benny. To get what I wanted, he tried to kill me. I took a bullet in the head for that one, but he didn't kill me, obviously. I had some memory problems-still do-but I'm working through them."

Uraraka nodded. "Yeah, that would change somebody. That bullet probably disrupted some of your normal brain patterns. It probably wouldn't be noticeable to you, but brain damage can seriously alter someone's personality."

Finally, someone who understood. "I'm very much aware of it. It's not something I can fix, though."

Uraraka stood up. She stared out into the campground, not making eye contact anymore. "Thank you, Deku. I appreciate the honesty."

Midoirya sighed as she walked away. The friendship that they had was obviously tainted. Iida and Todoroki knew something far worse about him, but they weren't as affected as her. He supposed there was a big difference in seeing something like that, and just hearing about a man dying in the wastes. Iida and Todoroki never stopped talking to him, and they still seemed friendly. It was likely that they didn't put as much value on someone's life from the Mojave after he described what it was like.

He pulled his bag closer to him and dug out his plasma rifle. After detailing the creatures and people from the wasteland, they'd allowed him to take his belongings with him that they'd confiscated. Of course, a good number of that stuff was counterfeited, but it meant that he could use his rifle any time he wanted. Well, only against wasteland creatures. They gave him a piece of paper-quite official looking-that explained the predicament. Had they not been able to see the deathclaw, he doubted that they would have done such a thing.

After depositing a majority of his stuff off, he took off to meet up with ED-E.


	12. Chapter 12

**I'm back! Sorry I made some of you guys worry about the story being** **abandoned. I've just had a lot going on with college, and I've also been trying to work on my book. If you guys are interested in reading that, there's a site called BetaBooks that I might experiment with. My story is apocalyptic, kind of like Fallout, but it's a lot more supernatural. If anyone is interested, hit me up! I need as made opinions as possible to make it a good book.**

 **Anyway, enough self-advertising. I don't know when I'll be able to do the next chapter, but I promise this story isn't abandoned. Thank you so much for your guys' support. It means the world to me. Enjoy the chapter!**

Most of the night was boring for Midoriya. A few laps around the perimeter of the camp proved fairly useless, although he did start to learn the lay of the land a bit. Since it was in the middle of the woods, there were quite a few holes and roots under his feet. Any careless move would surmount in at least a sprained ankle.

On his patrol, he came across a kid he'd seen earlier. He was likely only in elementary school. Despite his age, he had worn a sour expression on his face. He was probably one of the Pussycat's, but he didn't bother to meddle in their business. The kid, however, didn't seem to have any qualms, even if his face said otherwise.

"What are you doing out here, away from the other heroes?" the kid had asked. The word 'hero' seemed to cause a bitter taste in his mouth.

Midoriya wasn't sure how to approach the kid. No matter what he said, the kid would probably take it the wrong way. "I'm making sure that there aren't any villains around."

"Then why do you have a gun? And a robot?"

He knew he'd get questions about the gun, but he expected them from his classmates first. "Well, I'm not looking out for just any villains. These guys come from somewhere far, far away, and they're pretty mean. My robot here knows how to fight them and help me."

"Don't talk to me like I'm a baby. I don't trust you, and I don't like what you're doing here."

Midoriya shrugged. "Fair enough. But why talk to me if you don't like us?"

The kid scowled before he turned around and walked away without an answer. He probably knew this land like the back of his own hand. Even if Midoriya wanted to catch back up with him, there was little chance that he could find him.

* * *

The next day proved to be challenging, only because Midoriya was mentally multitasking. On one hand, he was trying to improve his ability to use his Quirk. On the other, he was being constantly vigilant of his surroundings. Any sound in his general vicinity was cause enough for him to turn his attention away from whatever task he'd previously been focusing on. This caused issues when he was in the middle of his training. He'd gotten scolded from each of the Pussycats at least twice over. It was a relief to be given their lunch break.

"So, now you have a gun?" Tsuyu asked. She seemed completely neutral about the situation.

"I don't even want to ask," Jiro mumbled.

"I heard that you're working with the police. You're living, like, a double life," Kaminari offered up. And really, he had no idea.

Midoriya chuckled. Especially after talking with Uraraka, he was trying to maintain a positive attitude around his peers. It was likely that Shigaraki would rear his head again, and then they would finally get a taste of what the wasteland was like. When that time came, he needed to make sure his classmates had complete faith and trust in him. If not, they would likely try to fight the damn creatures by themselves. By playing along and answering their seemingly endless questions, they'd probably stick close to him. The only downside to that situation would be that they would probably get in his way. Still, he'd rather keep them safe rather than get a good vantage point.

Soon enough, their lunch break was over and they returned to their training. As difficult as it was to multitask, Midoriya would take his tasks in stride. No matter what he had to face, nothing could possibly be worse than the Mojave.

* * *

That night, they were having a competition between class A and B. Midoriya wasn't sure who decided to do it, but he had to admit that it was a good idea. The tension in the students was quite high, despite their outward appearances.

And, due to their lopsided attendance, the lot drawing system made for one lonely person. That person ended up being Midoriya, but he didn't really mind. One-on-one interaction was hard for him. It wasn't like he personally couldn't stand it, but others didn't really know how to react. Together, in a group, it was lighthearted conversation. However, by themselves, his classmates easily got intimidated. It wasn't good for the trust he was trying to work on, but it at least established that he held power. It would be difficult to find balance between the two.

"It sucks that you're alone, but at least you have a robot with you," Hagakure offered up. Although she rarely spoke to Midoriya, it was a treat when she did. Any Nightkin would have been incredibly jealous of her Quirk.

Slowly, the night began. Simply waiting to go through the forest was torture enough. With nothing else to do, some of the students elected for card games and shitty tic-tac-toes scribbled in the dirt.

Midoriya couldn't stand to do anything so menial when a bigger task was at foot. His eyes scoured the darkness for any signs of unwanted life.

That continued until Uraraka and Tsuyu started into the forest. They must have only been about halfway through the course before Midoriya felt a prickle on his neck. Intuition, he liked to call it. Ed-E made a beeping sound at the same time that he raised his weapon.

"What's wrong, Midoriya?" Todoroki asked. None of them felt unsettled as he did, obviously, but they jumped when they heard him flip the safety off.

Midoriya didn't feel like he needed to answer. Slowly, they started to gather where he was standing. It seemed as though his trust thing was working out.

Silence permeated the air. The stillness of night was upon them, and not even a single bug was making a sound. The other students' breathing was irregular – even after facing villains, standing in the darkness still elicited a lot of fear.

And for good reason. Without warning, creatures barreled at them from the forest. They were ugly, deformed creatures. Would-be-humans. Inhuman gurgles and hisses came from their throats as they rushed at them.

Ghouls.

"Don't let them touch you!" Midoriya ordered as he and Ed-E started taking shots. As the creatures came close, his Pip-Boy started making ticking noises. Unbeknownst to those around him, the creatures were emitting a high amount of radiation, which made them more deadly than brute force.

"Are they…people?" Iida asked. As a melee fighter, he seldom got the chance to kick them away. Tokoyami, who had dark shadow, was able to get a few more hits in.

"Not anymore," Midoriya answered as he shot one through the head. Its headless body fell to the ground.

The stream of them seemed endless, but eventually they came to the end of them. As far as Midoriya could tell, none of his classmates had suffered any serious injuries.

"What do you mean by that?" Momo asked.

"After prolonged exposure to radiation, they transformed into these things. They have no conscience anymore. We don't have time for this. You all need to head back to camp. I don't know what else may be out here."

"Don't give me any damn orders just because you have a gun," Bakugo growled.

Midoriya frowned. "If you want to die, be my guest. Were any of you aware that these are the weak ghouls? Did you know that there are some ghouls that have been so thoroughly irradiated that even getting near one could cause instant death? Not to mention that our classmates are still out there, dealing with God-knows-what. Besides, you guys aren't allowed to fight. Find Aizawa and get out of here."

"That's a good plan, Midoriya," Iida commended. It was true; out of all of them, Midoriya was the only one with any kind of authority to fight anybody. It was basically a miracle that he'd earned that, but he considered it a blessing. But, even better than that was the backing he got from Iida. Although Midoriya had more brute power, Iida had diplomatic power. Being friends with the class rep sure had its perks.

Bakugo still growled about it, but he followed the rest of them as they left towards the camp. "Be careful out there, Midoriya," Jiro told him before catching up with the rest of them. He didn't need her words of caution, but he appreciated the thought.

As soon as they'd left, Ed-E offered up a few of his own beeps. "Anything on the sensor?" he asked in English. It was hard to keep switching tongues, especially since he hadn't spoken Japanese the entire time he was in the Mojave. Even in his native tongue, he was rusty. However, English still wasn't his strong suit. He still messed up grammar every once in a while.

Ed-E beeped again before turning around. Without even being able to speak, Midoriya understood just fine. He followed the robot closely, keeping his rifle close. He kept the safety off.

Eventually, they came to another clearing. There was a different feeling in the air, something that smelled different than the ghouls. Usually, there was a pungent scent in the air from their rotting flesh. However, there was a different scent in the air. It smelt like sweat and gunpowder. Then, to confirm Midoriya's suspicion, people popped out from some of the surrounding bushes.

At first he thought they were raiders. They were quite common in the Mojave. However, after getting a quick glance, he identified them as Jackal gang members. That made more sense than raiders; he'd killed enough of them that they had reason to organize under Shigaraki.

"Die, fucker!" one of them yelled at him before they opened fire. He ducked behind a tree, but was grazed by two bullets. He shrugged it off with a stimpak.

The issue wouldn't be whether or not he could take them. There was no comparison – he could kill each of them with his eyes closed. The issue arose in the fact that he was under police jurisdiction. He wouldn't be able to get away with killing them. To get through this, he was going to need to detain them. It should have been easy – he was in the hero course – but his mind kept reverting back to wasteland ideology.

He took a deep breath. First, he would shoot at their weapons. If they were disarmed, then they would be far less dangerous. Then, when they fought back – because he knew they would – he could shoot at their legs. It would still seriously hurt, possibly permanently disable them, but he'd get away with it much easier.

Midoriya peaked out from behind the tree. Ed-E knew well enough that he wasn't supposed to kill, either, so he wouldn't have to worry about that.

Although the Jackals sent bullets flying, they were terrible shots. They only got about two good shots in before all of their weapons were out of their hands, most of which were broken. A few of them attempted to rush him, most were smart enough to stand back.

Midoriya and Ed-E made their rounds with binding tape. Ed-E, being a robot, was fairly adept at quickly binding them. A few of them tried to run, but they were shot in the legs.

"You ain't what you used to be. You're soft now," one of them said when Midoriya approached. The gang member spit on his shoes.

Izuku kneeled down. "No, it's not that. I know how to play my hand just right. Enjoy your stay here," he said before forcing the butt of his rifle into the man's face. His nose made a snapping sound. Blood dripped from it, and if Midoriya wasn't mistaken, it looked a little crooked.

When he felt assured that everyone was bound to a tree, he made his way forward. If there were both ghouls and Jackal members loose, there was no telling what else Shigaraki had brought to the fight. However, he did know that he needed to try and find his classmates.

"So, this is where you've been," a familiar voice called out. Midoriya knew that snarky voice; it could only belong to one person. When he turned around, he saw a man with sandy hair and a bored expression. He wore glasses and a dirty lab coat. Behind him were a few students from class 1B. They seemed cautious of the man, yet more scared of what else they'd came across.

"I knew you spoke Latin, but I didn't know you could speak Japanese," Midoriya retorted back. The man smirked – it was hard to get one out of him.

"I thought I'd learn it after you left," Arcade explained.

"So," Midoriya leaned against a tree to seem as casual as possible, "what brings you 'round these parts?"

"Funny you should ask. I heard tell of a man trying to rile support against you. Considering you've been gone for about three years, I figured I'd investigate. I found myself in an old warehouse with some raiders, ghouls, Nightkin – you know, the usual – and suddenly I find myself in the middle of this forest. It looks nice, definitely not blown to hell. Then I found these kids fighting some raiders, and these guys obviously had no idea what they were doing, so I leant them a hand. Now they won't leave me."

Midoriya thought about the situation. "Well, I don't want to endanger them anymore, but I could really use a second gun." He turned his head to look behind Arcade, towards the students. "Do you guys know how many more of you are out here?"

"Most of them ran back to camp. There might be a few left out here," the pony girl answered. Midoriya hated to admit it, but he barely knew anyone from that class.

"Okay, Arcade, I need you around until I find Uraraka and Tsuyu. Then, you're going to go back with them to camp. When they ask who you are, just tell them that you're with me. Good?"

"Oh, so we're already back to you giving me orders, huh? Yeah, I got it."

They trudged forward as a group. The students still tended to keep a safe distance between themselves and Arcade. Not that Midoriya could blame them. Then, he also noticed the dirty looks that Arcade was shooting at Ed-E. There was nothing like an old rivalry.

The group got there just in time to see Uraraka force a raider to the ground. Their combat knife fell out of their hand as she twisted the wrist. It was so fast and professional, Midoriya wasn't even sure that it really happened at first. Tsuyu had a different raider trapped by wrapping her tongue around them. The woman's face was turning blue from lack of oxygen.

"I guess I didn't even need to show up," Midoriya announced. Neither of the girls seemed surprised to see him, although they also gave weary glances to Arcade. Midoriya kicked the head of the raider that was trapped under Uraraka, knocking him out cold. When the raider that Tsuyu had in her hold lost consciousness, she let her go. Midoriya tied up the one Urakara took down while Ed-E took Tsuyu's.

"This was easier than that clawed beast at the mall," Uraraka commented.

"A Deathclaw? What did you do to make that man set a Deathclaw on you?" Arcade asked.

"This isn't the time. Remember the plan? I need you to take them all back to camp."

"We can do that ourselves, Deku. You could use him more than we would," Uraraka interjected.

"Are you just going to talk about me like I'm not right here?"

Midoriya ignored Arcade. He had a sharp wit, which often didn't require any kind of response. "I trust you to take down some simple villains, but…"

Uraraka picked up a gun that one of the raiders had dropped. "I promise, we'll be fine."

The way that she held and treated that gun told Midoriya that it wasn't the first time she'd handled a gun.

"Okay, change of plans. Arcade, you stick with me."

"Whatever you want," he answered, seemingly bored with the situation.

"Alright, let's go," Tsuyu said before the group took off.

Arcade waited until everyone was gone before he spoke again, this time in English. "So, what is this place?"

Midoriya gritted his teeth. Sometimes, it felt like he was the only person who knew what was going on. "This is where I'm from. It's a different world, one where the war never happened. It's different, even to prewar standards. And you probably noticed the Quirks."

"You mean the way that some of them looked like mutated kids? Yeah, I noticed that."

"It's kind of like a mutation. They're more like superpowers. These students are all training to be registered super heroes."

Arcade laughed. "Sounds nice, really. So, why are you here?"

Midoriya gave him a look. "Because I'm training to be one, too."

"It's not beyond you, I suppose. You have a lot of bloodlust to be a superhero, though, don't you? Look at you – stirring the pot already and shooting things up."

"To be fair, he's the one stirring the pot, and it's a long story to explain why. More importantly, I'm working on the bloodshed thing. If you noticed, I didn't kill a single raider."

"You didn't do anything, actually."

Midoriya sighed. "Well, of the Jackal members I encountered before, I didn't kill anyone."

"Aren't you a saint," Arcade muttered.

Before he even had a chance to reply, another voice spoke out. It was seemingly disembodied. "Izuku Midoriya, if you're out there, I need your help. Koda isn't here; I think he's out there somewhere. Please, find him."

"I wasn't the only one that heard that, was I?" Arcade asked. His face remained stoic.

"No, you weren't. Now, who's Koda? Oh, he's probably that kid," Midoriya spoke aloud as he tried to work it out.

"Yes. That kid. That seems likely."

Again, Midoriya ignored Arcade. "He knows this place well. So, he probably knows his way around. But, he's still a kid. If I'm to guess, he probably took the high ground. He probably went up there," Midoriya pointed up one of the large hills near them. It was the highest point he could see.

"If it's a kid, I wouldn't doubt it," Arcade answered. "You lead on."

"Alright, let's go," Midoriya said. And that night, for the first time in a while, everything felt right to Midoriya. Even if it weren't necessarily a good situation, it was familiar to him. With both Ed-E and Arcade behind him, he felt like he could take on the world.


	13. Chapter 13

**Guess who's back! I'll be honest, I really stalled on this chapter. I kind of lost a lot of inspiration, and suddenly finals happened, you know the spiel. Anyway, I think I finally decided on how I'm going to end this. I'd like to play around with Arcade for a little bit, but otherwise, the ending is probably coming up shortly. (I'm not one for really long fanfictions. I save that for my novels.)**

 **As always, I'd like to thank you all for your continued support. I hope you'll stay until the very end.**

Although it was nice to finally see Arcade again, there was an uncomfortable air between them. Arcade was always distant, Midoriya knew that. However, by the end of their time together, it felt as though he had made at least a little progress in befriending the man. Suddenly, it felt as though there was another wall between them. And maybe that was more on Midoriya's behalf. He almost felt guilty that he'd never told Arcade about his old life, especially after Arcade trusted him enough to tell him about his own.

"How long did you say it's been since I'd been gone?" he asked casually. The last thing he wanted Arcade to know was that he was nervous.

"I'd say about three years. Not like I was counting the days or anything," Arcade answered.

"Wow. And what's happened?"

Arcade shrugged. "Not much. The NCR took over, and they've been implementing their laws. Ideally, a free wasteland would have been best. However, since the Legion was defeated, I can't find any ground to complain. You did what you needed to."

"A free wasteland would have required a few more deaths than letting the NCR take over. Trust me, I explored that option," Midoriya answered.

The more he talked, the more relaxed he felt. Perhaps that wasn't the wisest choice when they were surrounded by wasteland fiends and villains. Before he knew it, he'd reached the top of the peak. At it, what did they find but a gang of super mutants.

They saw him before he saw them. As a wasteland legend, he was acting particularly soft. Arcade was the first to aim his pistol, just before Ed-E took a few shots.

"Another puny human!" one roared as it ran towards the trio. Its ugly, green skin pulsated grotesquely. A normal human's skin most certainly was not meant to do anything like that.

Midoriya tried to focus on the surroundings, not just the mutants. Normally, he didn't care about collateral. However, he noticed that the mutant said 'another.' That meant that he was right about his assumptions regarding Koda.

Midoriya hoped that he wasn't too late.

The mutant rushing them finally dropped dead after many shots from both Arcade and Ed-E. That was something that he missed about the wasteland; he could trust that his companions had his back at times like this.

After a few seconds of scouting, Midoriya finally caught sight of a bright red baseball cap to his left, near the wall of rock. Wearing it was a tiny boy, boring into Midoriya's skull with his wide eyes. Tears whelmed in his eyes as he wordlessly begged Midoriya for help. Surrounding him were two super mutants, each looking pleased to tear the boy in half.

Seeing that a kid was in trouble, Midoriya was quick. He shot twice, once at each of the super mutants. Drawing their attention away from the kid was the first step. If that kid died out here, he'd never hear the end of it. Plus, it would weight heavily on his conscience.

The mutants were pissed now. They usually enjoyed tearing humans to pieces, but they preferred the ones that didn't shoot back. These guys were probably promised a bounty of useless children to satiate their monstrous needs. Finding men with guns was probably the last thing on their list of wishes.

However, Midoriya was not without weakness. They were on a flat part of the peak, which left little defense for him. While he had a little bit of armor, bullets to the arm were still a bitch to deal with. A few more grazed his shoulder, only to add to the one that the Jackals managed to land on him. Still, the kid's safety was more important than his own.

Midoriya focused. He had to split his shots between the two mutants charging him. They were gaining on his location, and it didn't look like he was making any damage.

Ed-E rushed over to him. They were able to take down one of the mutants together, but the other one was coming closer. There was nowhere to run, nothing to block himself with.

And within ten feet of the super mutant, his trigger jammed. Ed-E made an extremely distressed noise, and Midoriya could do nothing but watch in horror as the mutant closed the gap between them. The beast raised his super sledge.

Midoriya raised his hands to protect himself. It was instinctive.

And useless. The sledge connected with his ribs on the left. He flew a good twenty feet before skidding to a stop on the ground.

Despite the immense pain, he was still conscious. He wished he wasn't. Time seemed to move in strange flickers. He could hear a kid yelling one second, a gun another, and then silence the next. And it repeated, and repeated again. His vision was shit. Absolutely nothing made sense. H he guessed that he managed to hit his head when he hit the ground.

There was a lot of red. That probably wasn't a good sign.

Midoriya squeezed his eyes shut. He needed to focus on what he was doing. If he passed out, there would be a slim chance that he would wake up again. At least, that's what he told himself as he pushed his heavy body from the ground.

He had something for this. This hand shook as he dug around for a stimpak. Or three. When he found them, he stabbed a few into his side near the impact. It took effect immediately. Midoriya shook his head while the black retreated from the corners of his vision.

There were two mutants left, but they looked like they were ready to die at any second. Midoriya entrusted them to Arcade and Ed-E. Instead, he set his sights on the terrified boy.

Midoriya stumbled to him the best that he could. He was wobbly on his feet, to say the least. His right arm wrapped around his torso, and his left hand was trying to put pressure on the spot where his skull had split open.

He fell to his knees in front of Koda. "Are you okay?" he asked.

The boy seemed petrified. "You…you saved my life," he said.

Midoriya shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I did. You didn't answer the question."

Koda furiously nodded his head. "I'm okay. Thank you."

Soon after, Ed-E and Arcade came up behind him. "I've seen you for maybe thirty minutes and you already need my help. How have you survived this long without me?" Arcade teased.

"Ha ha, very funny. Now can you be useful and get us back to camp?"

Arcade dragged Midoriya up before leaning him against him. Midoriya slung his arm around Arcade's shoulder. "Can you walk?" Arcade asked Koda. His Japanese was still a little rough, but he had it down pretty well.

"Yeah," the boy answered shortly. Midoriya noticed that his legs were shaking, but there wasn't much he could do about it. Not unless he wanted to pass out in the middle of the forest on their way back.

"Ed-E, keep an eye on him," Midoriya commanded the robot in English.

Luckily for them, the trek back to camp went by without incidence. A stray tanuki gave them a scare along the way, but nothing wasteland-related crossed their path.

It was when they reached camp that the real hell began.

Koda was quickly enveloped by the Pussycats. Before he even had the chance to sit down and get some help from Arcade, Aizawa was chewing his ass out for getting himself into a reckless situation.

"He saved my life," Koda said from behind one of the girl's legs. He'd adopted his old, hardened expression. The scowl he wore now deeply contrasted the look on his face ten minutes ago. "There were monsters, and they were about to kill me."

Aizawa narrowed his eyes at Midoriya. "And who is this?" he asked, motioning to Arcade.

"My name is Arcade Gannon. I met Midoriya a year ago. I've travelled with him for some time, sometimes acting as a doctor. If you don't mind, I'd like to put his skull together before his brains spill out. No matter how stupid they are," Arcade answered for him.

The two men stared at each other. Both were headstrong, and both recognized that. "Fine," Aizawa answered. "Stitch him up. I'll help, follow me."

Midoriya tried to ignore the looks he was getting from his classmates. Most were wide-eyed looks of amazement, and some looked like pity.

He didn't like either.

But ultimately, he supposed it didn't really matter. Before they'd even made it inside, he blacked out.


	14. Chapter 14

**This chapter did not go at all the way I planned it, but I'm really happy with it. I noticed that some of you are commenting on my use of Arcade is this story, and all I can say is that he was my favorite character from the game. I think I just love how absolutely snarky he is in game. I tried to incorporate some of that into this story, but I think this chapter was a bit too serious for me to really dive into that part of him. Nonetheless, this was a good opportunity to introduce him to the rest of the students.**

 **And of course, thank you all for your support and reviews. Each one means a whole lot to me. They're my main motivator to keep telling this story that I've started. Although I was a bit shaky at first, you all helped me firmly plant my feet in this story and make it something I can really be proud of. Thank you all for that.**

Arcade crossed his arm. His face, forever stoic, lent Aizawa no guesses as to what he may have been thinking. "I don't know what you want me to tell you," Arcade admitted in a monotonous tone. As far as Aizawa could tell, he wasn't exactly pleased at his impromptu interrogation, but he was at least willing to satisfy his curiosity.

Midoriya was laying on the bed nearest them. His breathing was steady as he slumbered, even if it was an involuntary sleep. Aizawa thought that the man's healing methods were crude at best, but he seemed to know what he was doing. He seemed the type to be useful as a battlefield medic, but he was far from being a practiced doctor.

"I want you to tell me who you are, to start with," Aizawa said, equally as monotonous.

"I told you, my name is Arcade Gannon. I'm a member of the Followers of the Apocalypse, a group that intends to protect the people from another war, and to help them survive in the wasteland," he answered. He made sure to explain the Followers, since he was sure that the man would ask about that next.

"And you know Midoriya because you travelled with him, correct?" Aizawa pressed further.

Arcade sighed. Trying to explain something as trivial as their relationship was quite bothersome. They had much more to do than that. At least, tasks more important than sitting by and chatting. "He encouraged me to travel with him. I saw he had the people's best interest in mind, and so I agreed. He's quite the idiot. Thinks more of others than of himself."

Aizawa pressed his hand under his chin. "Yeah, that does sound like Midoriya. So, explain to me how you got from there…to here."

Now, this was likely to be a more industrious conversation. Arcade slightly perked up. "I'd heard rumors about a new power. Seeing as how we just got out of a power struggle between the NCR and the Legion, I was concerned that another rebellion might spark. Not only that, but there was promise of revenge against Midoriya. And, well, he'd been missing for about three years. I investigated and came across that blue haired man with that strange mask. He told any person, ghoul, or mutant that they could get their revenge against him. He opened a portal, which as a man of science, was strange. Nonetheless, I took my chance, and I found myself in this forest."

The pro hero nodded, closely listening to the story. "And do you know why so many people wanted to kill him?"

Arcade scoffed, then glanced at the green haired boy. "He's a legend, a war hero. Rose from the grave to singlehandedly drive off the Legion. That alone would set half the country against him. Then, he's managed to amass a whole mythology around him. Kids love to hear about him and whatever stupid thing he's done."

Aizawa made note of the way that Arcade looked at Midoriya during his explanation. There was a slight respect in the man's eyes, which was strange to see in his natural demeanor. Despite the way he spoke about him, his body language told another story. "What kinds of stories do they like to tell?"

"Oh," Arcade let out a breath. He tilted his head slightly to the side and started tapping his foot to the ground. He seemed to be thinking. "Well, he apparently sent a few ghouls to space once. Raul helped him with that, I believe. People couldn't stop talking about seeing rockets in the sky for weeks."

"How did they know it was Midoriya?"

Arcade laughed. "Kid got wasted and couldn't stop talking about it. Word spreads fast from the bars, you know. That's where most people live."

Aizawa blinked a few times in disbelief. He paused, and then turned the words over in his head a few times. It didn't quite register with him. He couldn't picture someone like Midoriya, even after his change in appearance and attitude, getting wasted in a bar. It was like imagining a baby sitting down with a cigarette after a hard day.

"Hey, you alright?" Arcade asked as he waved a hand in front of the hero's face.

The teacher shook his head slowly. "I just can't imagine him…"

"You took everything else really well, but it's the drinking that gets you? Well, you should be pleased to know that he never got into the drug scene. Most people like him get addicted to that stuff. It may help in the battle, but brain cognition goes down significantly after use. Just one hit of psycho can destabilize the brain permanently, causing increased aggression and a damaged amygdala," Arcade began to explain before noticing the look on the other man's face. "Of course, I suppose that wouldn't be important to you."

Aizawa began to massage his temples. It had been a long, long night. "What is it like over there? Nobody ever was able to get a clear answer out of Midoriya."

"Well, what did he tell you?" Arcade asked, hoping to at least be able to fill in the holes from the kid's usually decrepit descriptions.

"He said it was a place suffering from the aftermath of a nuclear war, and that mutated creatures ruled the lands."

"Hmm, that's pretty much all you really need to know about it. He's absolutely correct."

"But there's much more to it than that. You both have mentioned the NCR and the Legion. What are those?"

Arcade shook his head. "I don't really want to get into a political discussion about what factions try to rule, but I can try to break it down as simply as possible. The NCR is a military group that wants to expand democratic rule across the former American southwest. The Legion is a bloodthirsty group of savages who only wanted to enslave the people living in the Mojave. They use the guise of Roman names to try an justify their sick intent."

"I can tell who you think is more suited to have power," Aizawa made a side comment.

"Not really, I'd have preferred that the people of New Vegas and the Mojave were free from either power, but under the pressure of war, Midoriya had little choice but to help the NCR seize control of Hoover Dam."

"What made Midoriya such an important piece in this war?" Aizawa pressed. Arcade had unwittingly let Aizawa in on something that Midoriya considered his touchy subject concerning the Mojave.

"Oh, well, he was willing to do whatever people needed, and the powers at be thought his non-conformity would be beneficial as a pawn. He quickly gained a name for himself from all political factions, whether as their adversary or savior. He had a way of entrancing the people, he gave them hope. He was the perfect poster boy."

Aizawa bit his lip. So, he was quite suited to becoming All Might's successor. However, it seemed strange that such a person as famous, or infamous, as Midoriya was able to disappear from their world seemingly without much consequence. After all, Arcade didn't seem to think that his return to this world was a big inconvenience. In their world, however, there would be a totally different political stream. If All Might disappeared…

He shook the thought from his head. That day was coming, as All Might had made that clear to all the teachers at UA. That was the reason that Midoriya was there in the first place, but after unfortunate circumstances, it seemed his purpose in life had changed. He wanted to save the world, like any kid in their society, but he'd ended up saving the wrong world.

"What happened after he disappeared?"

"Well, at first, people assumed that he'd just died. It's not like people really expected him to survive the battle after what he'd done. But nobody was able to find his corpse, so it was just assumed that he'd moved on. He was always like that, never able to settle down in one place. Everyone just hoped that wherever he was, he was the same legend that they'd known as their hero."

Hero. The word hung in the air. A word that Aizawa himself was never able to properly explain or define. The society he lived in was full of them, but the word itself could have so many more meanings than simply a profession.

"Do you all just space off in this world?" Arcade said as he tried to make eye contact with the man.

"What?"

"Maybe it's because you don't have to constantly watch your back, but you all seem so willing to just sit back and forget about what's going on around you," Arcade explained his findings.

Aizawa, annoyed, brushed the man off. "I'm trying to piece all of this together. It's a lot to take in, alright?"

Arcade opened his mouth, ready to make a snide comment, but was interrupted by a door opening. A young girl and boy ran into the room. The girl sported a short brown bob, and the boy was tall with a simple haircut and glasses.

"Mr. Aizawa, we need help," she said hurriedly.

"Uraraka, Iida, what's wrong?" Aizawa asked as he snapped out of his thoughts.

"Denki was bit by something and is starting to feel sick," the boy explained in a no-nonsense manner.

"What's wrong with him?" Arcade asked seriously as he stepped forward. As a doctor, his attention was always grabbed by someone in need.

"He's confused, weak, and has a fever. He just started bleeding from his nose and mouth," the girl spit out.

"That's radiation sickness," Arcade explained quickly as he started towards the students. "I'm a doctor, take me to him now. You," he said, momentarily turning towards Aizawa "Midoriya must have had some Rad-Away with him on this trip. Get his shit and bring it to me," he ordered the man before quickly following the children out the door.

Even without the two, Arcade could have easily found the kid in need. A large group of students were standing in a circle. Their worries were being passed about as harsh whispers. Although most probably had good intentions, their crowding was bad for the kid.

"Get out of the way," Arcade commanded. Most of the students knew that he was there and what he looked like, but they weren't given the knowledge as to who he was. Nonetheless, they listened to what he had to say.

As the students stepped back, Arcade was able to see who needed help. There was a pink skinned girl on the ground, cradling another kid's head on her knees. As horny teenagers, the kid would have probably loved to be in such a position, if he wasn't under the mental effects of his sickness.

The man knelt next to the two. The kid was breathing hard, and his eyes were unfocused. Blood was dripping out of his nose and mouth. On his shoulder was an exposed bit of skin with an obvious bite mark.

Usually, a single bite was unlikely to cause radiation sickness. "What bit him?" Arcade asked. He looked up at the girl. She seemed panicked and confused.

"What?" she asked, probably too focused on the kid to have payed attention to Arcade.

"This kid, what bit him? I need to know," he said calmly, but with confidence. The last thing he needed was the girl to get hysterical on him, especially not over something like this.

"Well…we heard some noises and he wandered off to check on everything even though Aizawa told us to stay put…and when he came back he said some weird zombie thing bit him," she overexplained.

"Did he describe the zombie?" Arcade asked in terms that she could understand. He couldn't very well ask what kind of ghoul that the boy saw.

"Uh…uh…he said that it was like…glowing. Like…green."

"Fuck," Arcade swore, which was quickly talked about betwixt the group of students still standing around them.

Just in time, Aizawa arrived with a suitcase full of Midoriya's belongings. Arcade quickly ruffled through it, quite used to dealing with his leftover junk. He was quite pleased to note that there didn't seem to be anything unnecessary floating around in there, and even more thankful to find a few bags of Rad Away. He grabbed two from the case before quickly looking over the two bags. In the Mojave, he'd become accustomed to checking the needles of each bag to find the one with the least amount of rust. Luckily for all of them, it seemed that Midoriya was smart enough to replace all of the needles with fresh, sterile ones. Arcade pulled the protective plastic from both needles before indiscriminately shoving them both into the boy's veins.

The students winced as Arcade explained. "Not only was he bit by a radioactive ghoul, he was bit by a Glowing One. Just being near one can be lethal; I'm surprised this kid is still alive after that."

Slowly, Denki's breathing started to stabilize. His body relaxed, and his eyes closed. He drifted off into sleep, likely his body's attempt to fight off the radiation.

"Is he okay?" the pink girl asked. Now that Arcade didn't have to focus on the kid, he could see that she'd been crying.

"He's going to be fine," Arcade soothed her as best he could in his cold voice. After all, he wasn't a people person.

"Alright everyone, back inside. Now," Aizawa commanded the students. After the last one reluctantly retreated inside, he turned to the wastelander. "Thank you. You've saved how many of my students tonight?"

Arcade subtly shook his head. "It's what we do," he justified.

"Ashido, we're going to take Denki to the infirmary. I want you to join the other students inside, alright?" Aizawa spoke to the girl in a softer voice than the one he used to address the other students. Arcade thought that he was as much of a loner as himself, but he could suddenly see that he knew the small intricacies to speaking with different people. It was something that Arcade could admit he didn't know that well.

After placing the student on the bed next to Midoriya, Aizawa turned to Arcade once more. "I owe you everything for what you've done today. I can put in a good word for you, but the police are going to want to know everything you've told me tonight, too. Even if you save the world, you're not going to get out of that one."

Arcade sighed, defeated. He hated talking to people. "Figures."


	15. Chapter 15

**Kind of a weird chapter. I had a lot of ideas going on, but none of them advanced enough to write a whole chapter about. Nonetheless, I hope y'all enjoy!**

For what most certainly wasn't the first time, Midoriya was in a hospital. He knew that before he opened his eyes. The sterile air, the constant beeping, and the absolutely throbbing headache were more than enough to indicate his location.

"Are you finally awake yet?" a gruff voice asked.

Midoriya reluctantly opened his eyes. Although he was the only patient in the room, he wasn't the only person. Across from his bed was a table and chair. In the chair was a tired, sandy blonde man. A pair of handcuffs chained one of his wrists to the table. "They don't trust you, huh?" the green haired courier asked.

Arcade sighed. It didn't seem as though he'd slept in a long time. "It was this or a jail cell. The man with the unfashionable scarf persuaded them to let me stay here," he explained.

"What, are they arresting you or something?"

"No, they want you to confirm that I am, in fact, from the Mojave. Seems that they aren't keen on believing a man with no identity," Arcade said. He seemed to understand the situation, but he was definitely pissed about it.

"How long have you been there?"

"I'd say about twelve hours. Twelve hours longer than what I prefer."

"Hmm, I'm still pretty tired. Maybe I should go back to sleep," Midoriya taunted from his cot. A small smirk danced on his lips.

Arcade snatched the first thing he could, which happened to be a pen, and threw it at Midoriya. "Call someone. Now," he threatened.

Midoriya laughed as he dodged the assault. Before Arcade could find anything else to send his way, he hit a button near his bed. Soon after, a nurse followed, escorted by two police officers. "Do you need me?" the nurse asked. She seemed as tired as Arcade.

He shook his head. "No, I just want to see about releasing him."

The nurse nodded her head before walking out. One of the police officers stepped forward. "Mr. Izuku Midoriya, do you know this man?"

"Yes," he answered. He could see where this was going.

"Was this man born in a different…er…world?"

"Yes."

"Is this man a threat to our national security?"

"No."

The questions went on for what felt like hours to both Midoriya and Arcade. However, after the extensive and quite intrusive questions were answered to their satisfaction, they undid the restraints on Arcade. He immediately stood up and rubbed his wrist before excusing himself to the bathroom.

"He will still need to be monitored closely by the police. However, since he does seem to be a valuable asset, he will be given some of the same freedoms that you have been given. We will escort him down to the police station and set up accommodations. I think that we are being more than reasonable, don't you agree?" the police officer coerced a peaceful answer out of Midoriya.

He nodded. "Sure, sounds good."

"You'll find your belongings over there," the other officer gestured to the side of the room, where there were two bags and a robot. Ed-E seemed to be in sleep mode, probably because of Arcade. He absolutely hated the thing and would have done anything to get rid of it. Thankfully, it looked as though Ed-E wasn't damaged.

"Thanks."

"Thank you for your cooperation today," the officers thanked him. As soon as Arcade came back, they escorted him to the police station, leaving Midoriya alone in the hospital room.

* * *

They released Midoriya later that night. His mother came to the hospital to pick him up. Their bus ride back was in silence, which was how they'd been since he came back. Inko knew that something was wrong and terribly off with her son, but she couldn't bring herself to try and delve in too deep. She saw the depression and sadness in those eyes; eyes that had seen too much. Each time she glimpsed at one of the scars that he sported on his body, her breath caught in her throat.

She'd tried to connect with him again. Besides, to her, she never even knew that her son had been missing. He seemed happy and bubbly that day he went to school. But the first time that she picked him up from the hospital was like meeting a stranger. She hugged him, and he hugged her back, but there was nothing there. It felt strange, as though the bond that they'd built no longer existed.

"Izuku, what happened?" she had asked him frantically, which used to be something that she and her son shared.

"Nothing good," he'd answered shortly. She could tell that he was being honest, but it didn't seem as though he had any other feelings towards her.

"They…told me what happened…" she'd started. Of course they told his mother everything that he told them. As soon as she'd heard that he'd been shot in the head – twice, even – she started freaking out.

"Then you know I'm not the same person," he had reasoned. She could have sworn that she heard her heart break in half. She wanted him to get angry, or cry, or shout, but he didn't do any of those things. Instead, he'd sat there and calmly answered her questions.

Inko Midoriya knew that she had lost her son.

"Thank you," her son told her, tearing her from her memories.

"Izuku…" she tried to say something, but she couldn't quite find the right words. She sighed. "I love you," she said softly.

Midoriya turned to her, a small smile on his face. To Inko, it looked like pity. "I love you, too," he answered.

Inko put her hand on her son's knee. They rode the rest of the way in somber silence.

* * *

"What gave you this bright idea?" Arcade asked with a sneer on his face. He obviously wasn't enthused about what Midoriya had suggested.

"What do you mean? This is the best place for our mission," Midoriya answered.

Arcade sighed. "I can't imagine a worse way to spend my day than in a school. One for super heroes, no less."

"Come on, look. This particular school is now a hotbed of activity for villains to attack. Well, at least my class. Can't you just show up for one day and let them know who you are? Besides, the police told you that you have to be with me in order to use any weapons," Midooriya explained. He had a fake whine in his voice. He knew that Arcade hated it.

The older man gritted his teeth and crossed his arms. Not only was he not a people person, but he especially didn't like children. Even if Midoriya was about the same age as them, he'd gone through too much to really be considered a child. The others were far too innocent, and therefore they were far too annoying. "They already know who I am. There's no point in me being there."

"Okay, that's fair. How about this, then. Just hang out in the teacher's lounge or something, and then join my class for the hero portion. We usually do a lot of practical stuff. I'm sure it would be exciting for you to watch different Quirks up close, am I right?"

Arcade started taping on his arm with his index finger. "If you're so desperate for me to come with, I will. But I'll have you know I didn't cross dimensions just to go to a school."

Midoriya softly punched him on the arm. "That's the spirit. Follow me, I'll show you where everything is."

* * *

Of all the things that Arcade expected to see in that school, a giant rat was not one of them.

Midoriya had shown him the small-ish room, then told him that some teachers may be in or out of the room during the day. He was probably only in there for about an hour, minding his business, when the rat walked in.

Instinct told him to reach for the gun. In fact, at first, he thought that it was a weird, albino molerat. And honestly, he probably would have taken the shot had the rat not been wearing a suit.

"Oh, hello," the rat greeted. He seemed somewhat surprised to see him in there, but it wasn't the same kind of surprise that Arcade experienced.

"Er…Hi," he greeted, suddenly at a loss for words.

"I believe that you're Mr. Gannon, correct? I'm surprised that you did not want to observe one of our classes while you are here."

Arcade subtly looked past the rat. If he focused on the bit of wall just behind the rat, he could pretend that he wasn't talking to it. "No, I'm not terribly great at dealing with children."

"Ah, that's a shame. Oh, where are my manners. I'm Nezu, the principal of this school," he greeted. His extended one of his paws in formal American greeting.

Although reluctantly, Arcade shook his paw. "It's good to meet you. My apologies, I'm not quite accustomed to what I might see in this world," he admitted.

"That's alright, I'm quite rare here, actually. In most cases, it is humans that acquire Quirks. I am one of the few animals other than human to acquire one."

Arcade nodded slowly. He was only just able to pick up on a few things about this world. Midoriya briefly explained what a Quirk was, but it didn't seem like he did a very good job of doing so. It didn't seem to just be a "superpower" as he'd described it. If anything, it seems to be a phenotype of a certain gene.

After a few more moments of silence, the Nezu spoke again. "Are you certain that you don't want to sit in a classroom? They can be very informational."

He nodded. "Yes, thank you."

"Well," the rat said, "I best get back to work. I highly suggest that you do watch class 1-A today for the hero training portion of their day. I believe All Might has an interesting activity in store. And since I never said it, thank you for the help that you've given our students. In this dark time, it is a comfort to find compassion in a stranger."

Arcade smirked. "You're welcome."

"And of course, you're welcome to sit in on a classroom if you wish. I'm sure our teachers would be willing to let you in. Of course, if you still don't want to, there should be some tea over there," Nezu gestured to the side of the room. "But I won't bother you anymore. Goodbye!" Nezu said cheerfully as he left the room.

Arcade slouched back into the couch that he was sitting on. This new world that he was in was proving to be exhausting. It was not wonder that Midoriya had such intense energy in a place as desolate at the Mojave. Now, he only had to wonder how much else he was to find out about the kid.


	16. Chapter 16

**I'm back! Maybe I should take bets on how long y'all think it will take me to write the next chapter.**

 **And honestly, the reason I wrote this was because I didn't want to write my essay about the comparison between Alfred, Lord Tennyson and William Wordsworth. Oops, sorry Professor Swan.**

 **But really, I am sorry it took me so long to update. But to be fair, I don't think I've updated my other story in about a year, so really, y'all ain't doing too bad. Again, hopefully I can end this story soon, but I need time to make it seem...natural? Like I could do the ending next chapter, but it wouldn't feel like a good ending. Nonetheless, it is coming...sometime...maybe in a few months?**

Midoriya stretched his limbs. The bright sun shined down upon him and the cluster of his fellow classmates. They were chatting amongst themselves, never seeming to worry about the trouble that they had to face. Midoriya wasn't any different, he supposed. Even after fighting deathclaws, he was always able to come up with a quippy remark. Cass hated it when he didn't take things seriously, but it was all he could do to keep himself sane. Arcade seemed to understand him.

All Might stood in front of the class, hands on his hips in his absolutely classic pose. He wore his signature smile, but two years of reading people made it far too easy for Midoriya to see that he was thinking of other things. Most prominent on his mind was likely the sudden personality change of his successor, and probably a deep concern for the strange events that had occured since the USJ incident. He'd likely been worried about other things before any of that, but Midoriya didn't have the skill to look past his demeanor at the time.

Midoriya turned his head as he heard a door open. They were on top of a building, about five stories tall. There was the exit behind them, but in front of them there was another separate building on the roof. It looked like it had been placed here after the construction of this building. The buildings in this training city were usually well-maintained, but nobody could help the rust that would accumulate on some of the metal doors. Out of the door came an anthropomorphic rat, followed by another familiar face. Midoriya smirked at Arcade, pleased that he'd decided to witness the abilities of his classmates. He'd glimpsed at his own Quirk, but never really understood it. Midoriya wasn't eager to share much, either.

"Class, today you'll be participating in an escape room. I've divided you up into teams of five, and those five will need to cooperate in order to escape. Every minute you spend in there, the walls will start to close in on you, one inch at a time. If you all escape, you pass. If you get to a point where you can no longer move, you will fail. If even just one person cannot escape, you fail. Those who are not participating will stay inside and watch the video cameras," All Might announced to the class once Nezu and Arcade had arrived.

Midoriya absentmindedly cracked his knuckles. There were a few people he'd like to have on his team, based on their intelligence, but he supposed that anything could do.

"The first team will be Yaoyorozu, Kirishima, Uraraka, Bakugo, and Midoriya."

Except him. Son of a bitch.

* * *

As soon as the group stepped into the room, the door shut behind them and locked. They were told that it was not the exit, and that it would not open from the inside. And, of course, if they did manage to exit through it, it would count as a fail and they would be disqualified. Otherwise, All Might told them that any other exit would count.

In the center of the room was a deep pit, the bottom of which was lined with various spikes and blades. It was about ten feet across, so not very feasible for someone without a jumping or flying quirk. They'd probably need to use Urakara for that one. It seemed a bit extreme for an exercise, but Midoriya supposed that villains wouldn't be too kind on them, either. And, of course, the exit was on the other side of the pit.

"Bakugo, can't you just blast through these walls?" Kirishima asked. Normally, just being in Midoriya's general vicinity would make Bakugo angry. However, Kirishima's presence seemed to tame his nature.

"Look at the ground, you spiky-haired idiot," he retorted, but didn't yell. He seemed rather...calm for the situation. It was a side of him that Midoriya rarely witnessed.

And it was, of course, obvious when he looked down. A rainbow film covered the ground beneath them. Oil. So, if Bakugo used his Quirk, they'd all likely die in a fiery explosion. It seemed that he'd be needed for his intelligence, not his Quirk.

Uraraka walked over to the wall by the entrance. She grabbed something before holding it up for the rest of them to see. "It's probably the key to the exit," she said.

"Good, keep that," Yaoyorozu said, peering over the edge of the pit. Just then, the walls around them moved inward. It was a reminder that they were on a time limit.

"Maybe I could break through the walls instead," Kirishima offered up. He seemed all too willing to find a different way out, other than the door. He wasn't stupid, Midoriya thought. It would be just like All Might to make it seem almost...too easy. The key was on the wall, and the door was right there. It couldn't be that easy, could it?

"No, you'd break your body before you made it out of here. These walls are thick steel," Midoriya answered, then knocked on the metal siding to prove his point.

"I could make a plank or bridge, but something that big would require time, which we don't have. Uraraka, I think we have to rely on your Quirk to get us over," Yaoyorozu said, her face revealing absolutely no emotion. She was very calmly evaluating the situation.

"But wait, you can't float yourself, can you?" Kirishima asked. Which was true, at one point.

Uraraka blushed even deeper. "Well, I've been working on it during our Quirk training. It's hard, but I can do it. Yaoyorozu, I just need you to make a rope and tie it to me when it's my turn."

Yaoyorozu nodded, quickly producing a rope from her stomach.

In another room, Arcade rubbed his chin as he watched the students with an acute interest. He wasn't keen on learning about the students before, but watching them now sparked a need, as a man of science, to understand what they could or couldn't do.

"She'd be useful as a medic," he commented to himself.

"She needs to understand the specific chemical composition of something in order to create it. It's an incredible brush of luck that someone as intelligent as her was born with that Quirk," Nezu answered the question that Arcade didn't ask.

But Arcade wasn't mad. In fact, he was even more interested in the rules of Quirks. At first, he assumed that these kids had powers like in Grognak or Astoundingly Awesome Tales. Now he could see that they had certain debilitating characteristics.

The scraping of the wall made it clear that they needed to hurry up.

Uraraka sent Midoriya, Kirishima, and Bakugo across first. The last of which, respectively, was not keen on being the subject of her Quirk. Nonetheless, he let it happen, but not without a moody comment. Last was Yaoyorozu.

"I think this is long enough," she commented as she tied the rope around Uraraka's waist. She nodded, then pushed the girl across with the other end of the rope. By the time she released her, Uraraka was breathing heavily. This was definitely a test of her endurance.

"Okay," she said between breaths. "As soon as I'm floating, pull me across," she told the other girl.

It took intense concentration, but finally she was airborne. She could hear the walls start to close in again as Yaoyorozu pulled her across. As soon as she was sure she was across, she released her Quirk. Kirishima supported her, as she was obviously exhausted. "You alright?" he asked her, his genuineness being one of the factors that made him so likable.

"Here's the key," she said, handing off the little metal piece to Yaoyorozu. She took it over to the door and inserted it into the lock, and then…

She turned back to the group. "This key doesn't work."

Midoriya examined the lock. Of course, he suspected that the key wouldn't really matter. But, it didn't seem like a difficult lock. "Hey, Yaoyorozu, could you make a lockpick?"

The group blinked at him, save for Bakugo, who only scowled.

"Dude, you know how to pick locks? Wait, nevermind, we shouldn't be surprised…"

Because a lockpick wasn't a hard think to make, Yaoyorozu almost instantaneously had it ready for him. "Here," she said, being quite interested herself to see how he would do it.

Midoriya inserted the metal rod into the lock and began to gently fiddle with the mechanism. Obviously they hadn't expected him to pick the lock, so they hadn't tried to get a harder lock. It took about two minutes for the whole thing to finally click. He stepped back and motioned to Yaoyorozu to go first. "Give it a try," he said.

She seemed skeptical at first, but ultimately pleased when the door opened after she turned the handle.

"Good work. That was not how I intended the door to be opened, but good thinking on your part," All Might said.

Arcade snorted. "Figures he'd do something like that."


	17. Chapter 17

**What? Two updates on consecutive days? Who is this?**

 **It's me. Here to deliver another chapter because I'd rather procrastinate my other responsibilities.**

 **Anyway, can you guess where I'm going to end this story? You'll need to have read the manga to understand what's going to happen. But, anyway, I hope you all enjoy! The next chapter might be the end. So stay tuned!**

"So, what's your opinion?" Midoriya asked.

"I think that this place is strangely clean and lacks the hellscape of the Mojave. Everyone seems friendly, and it makes me uncomfortable," Arcade answered sarcastically.

"You know what I mean, asshole," the green-haired courier replied with a smirk on his face. He felt loose when he was around Arcade, as if he'd finally stepped back into his comfort zone. Around his classmates, he felt as though he had to put up a facade.

"Well, it's interesting, certainly. It seems as though there are severe limitations to what you can do. That one girl, for example. I could see that it took immense amounts of energy to use her ability. It's unfair to compare these-what do you call them, Quirks?-to the 'powers' of comic book heroes," he answered, giving a severely condensed summary of his observations.

Midoriya nodded. "And what do you think about that?"

Arcade scowled. "I don't have personal opinions on the matter."

Midoriya scoffed. "Of course you do. You just don't like to share sometimes."

"Fine. Like I said, it intrigues me. I find it fascinating."

Midoriya smiled. Arcade hated letting him have his way, and yet he did smirk at the kid's response. He seemed passionate about the subject, and seeing him genuinely happy did stir something inside of the sarcastic medic.

"What's next on your...daily agenda?" Arcade asked, shaking his head of his thoughts.

"Well...I used to go out and take care of lowly villains. Now, since I have police permission, we can go and patrol for any sign of a dimensional rift. So, it's a lot more boring than before."

Arcade rubbed his forehead. Of course, only he would think it was boring to NOT evade the law.

* * *

Midoriya held up his hand as he looked around the corner. He was uncharacteristically silent as he surveyed the dark alley, so Arcade knew that he wasn't fooling around. The only sound was Ed-E, his engine softly whirring to keep him afloat. Midoriya reached for his gun, which rested on his back, and set it in a firing position. Arcade wasn't sure if that gun didn't have grooves from being handled so much.

He flicked a switch, and the gun silently hummed to life. Arcade personally trusted the safety of a plasma rifle or pistol more than a regular gun. The safety of them never failed, but he couldn't say the same for a 10mm.

Without warning, Midoriya whipped around the corner, plasma rifle at the ready. "Hands up!" he yelled to the group of people.

Arcade followed suit, raising his own in support. Ed-E stayed behind, instructed to not get involved. He wasn't known as being merciful.

The people occupying the alley did not raise up their hands. Instead, they smirked at the pair's arrival at the scene. Midoriya examined their clothes, which was hard to do in the dark. Their outfits seemed strange, but that didn't mean anything in this world. What made them outsiders in the super-powered society that Midoriya grew up in was their cohesion. Their uniforms were the same, each sporting a tunic covered with armor. They were mostly clothed in black, save for a few splashes of red. One was sitting on the hood of an abandoned car and two were hovering around a tire fire.

"It's been a while, Courier, since you've seen a Legion soldier, hasn't it? Five years doesn't mean anything to us, now. Not after what you did," the leader of the group said, stepping forward.

"Five years?" Arcade muttered to himself, although Midoriya caught it. That was something that they would have to unpack later, because the Legion soldiers weren't going to let them have any more time.

The lead soldier quickly shot a round from his rifle. He was a lousy shot, and both Midoriya and Arcade had the chance to take cover before any bullets came even remotely close to them.

When the brief reign of fire ceased, Midoriya peered around the corner with his rifle and took a quick shot. From a sounds of it, he hit his mark.

"Get back," he said quickly to Arcade. Internally, the medic groaned. It was effective, yes, but the collateral usually ended up being worse than just taking them out directly.

Midoriya grabbed Ed-E, just to ensure that he wouldn't be blown away. In order to not burn him, Ed-E turned off his engine.

Just as expected, there was an explosion. The body of the leader flew their way, skidding to a stop just next to Midoriya. He was missing a few limbs, but his face was entirely intact. He probably tried to run away from the car, but didn't quite make it. Instead, his face was permanently frozen in fear and a silent scream.

"I didn't think you were allowed to kill people," Arcade commented.

Midoriya shrugged, free of any responsibility. "I don't think I did. I think that they misfired at the car, and they tragically died before I could do anything."

The kid was like an entirely different person during the day. Maybe that's what he was trying to make Arcade understand by dragging him to his high school. And he did understand. This kid was tied down by the rules of this world.

* * *

Midoriya was exhausted by the time he made it home. It wasn't even a very late night. They'd found a few targets fairly early, and so he was told to take the rest of the night for himself. It took some time to try and explain the misfire, and although he knew they were suspicious, they let it go fairly quickly. It was plausible, after all, that his hypothetical situation was the truth.

He quietly closed the door behind him, careful not to wake his mother.

Although, that didn't seem to be necessary. When he turned around, he saw that all of the lights were on. Sitting quietly at the dining room table was his mother, her face solemn and seemingly in thought. Just as he saw her, however, she raised her eyes to look at him. They always used to be filled with such joy, the only time that she broke being when he found out he didn't have a Quirk. Now, he could only see the endless amount of tears that she had hidden from him.

"Izuku, please, I want to talk with you," she said.

There was a feeling in his stomach that he couldn't describe. It was like the first drop on a roller coaster, except there was no joy in his heart, no exhilaration. And it wasn't fear, either. He wasn't scared about whatever was going to happen next, but he couldn't help but not want to hear it.

However, he couldn't deny her request. He joined her in the table, absentmindedly tugging on his fingers. Ed-E could tell, somehow, that he wasn't needed. He floated towards Midoriya's room, presumably to put himself into sleep mode.

"Izuku...I...I just want to start by telling you I love you," she said. It seemed as though whatever she was going to say was going to be hard on her.

"I love you too, Mom," he said softly.

"But I really need you to be honest with me. I don't...I don't need the whole story. And I know the basics, I understand. But...but...I can't go on like this. I know you're out there, I know you're putting yourself in danger. And it scares me."

Midoriya wasn't sure how to respond, but he tried to anyway. As he opened his mouth, however, Inko raised her hand.

"Wait, let me articulate my thoughts first. I'm not...saying you should stop. I wish you could be my baby boy forever, but I know that...I know that my baby is already gone. You don't need to pretend that you're him."

Something inside of Midoriya broke. The words that came out of his own mothers lips hurt him more than any raider could have ever dreamed of. And yet, he knew that she was right. And not only that, he knew that she wasn't upset.

Tears began to well in his eyes for the first time in years. He'd been so careful to rid himself of useless emotions like fear or sadness, but simply seeing his mother like this brought back everything that he'd repressed.

He cleared his throat. He would not cry today. She was right, he wasn't the same kid who used to cry at everything.

"But I still love you. I love you so, so much. And I'm sorry I didn't know what to do, I'm sorry I haven't spoken until now. But how could I? How could I-"

"Mom, no," Midoriya quickly interrupted her. He held out his hand across, palm up. Inko sniffed, rubbed away her own tears, and took his hand. "It's okay, Mom, you're right. I'm not the same. And I still love you. But this isn't your fault. What happened to me...you couldn't help it. Nobody could help it. I see the way everyone looks at me, like I'm some kind of poor baby animal that they accidentally lost track of. I'm not...hurt, or anything. I'm different, sure, but who can say if that's bad or good? This is who I am now. And I love you for knowing that."

Inko smiled. It was the first time that Midoriya had seen a real smile on her face since he'd been back in this world. "I just want you to be happy, Izuku. You don't have to do what everyone else wants you to do. You have choices."

She probably meant that he didn't have to fight any more, or work with the police. Perhaps she thought that being around them was a bad influence on him. But he took her words another way.

He squeezed her hand and smiled at her. "Thank you."

She was right. He had a choice to make.

BREAK

The woman's skin was a teal blue color. It wasn't odd, but it was fascinating to look at. She seemed hesitant about his presence, but was quickly told that he was welcome. She spared him a few glances as she lead him through the hallways, but was always greeted with a small smile of his.

They came to a door, which she gratuitously opened for him. Beyond that, though, she didn't step in with him. She let the door close between them.

Midoriya walked into the room, only to be greeted by the back of a chair. "I believe you already know why I'm here," he said to the seemingly empty room.

The chair turned around. In it sat a gangly man, one who obviously hadn't seen the light of day in a while. His glasses shined, even in the dimly lit room. "I do. And you're absolutely sure that you want to do this?" Nighteye asked him.

Midoriya nodded, nervously pulling on his fingers. "Yes."


	18. Chapter 18

**Thank you everyone for making it this far. This is the final chapter of this series. I think it's about time that I pulled it to an end. Maybe it's and underwhelming, predictable ending, but I just hope that you all enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

Arcade narrowed his eyes. He couldn't say that he was surprised, necessarily. He just didn't think it was _best_ course of action. He understood little about Midoriya's world, but he did understand that he was some kind of protégé.

"It's too late to change my mind now," Midoriya answered after seeing Arcade's reaction.

"It's never too late. I can forget you mentioned it and we can just keep on going about our day."

"What, you plan on living here? Not that I could force you to leave, but this place isn't what you're used to. Interesting, I'm sure, but you don't feel like you have a purpose. And I definitely don't belong here anymore. I tried, I really did, but…" Midoriya trailed off, staring off into the distance. There were few times that Arcade saw him like this, the most memorable of which being when he returned from the Divide.

"But you can't shake the Mojave off of you," Arcade finished. He understood perfectly fine.

Midoriya shook his head. "Not after everything I've done. I can't just pretend that I didn't do any of that. I can't ignore my responsibilities."

Arcade crossed his arms. "Don't you have responsibilities here, too?"

Midoriya smiled. Not a real one, just a mirror of one. There was no happiness behind it. "Not anymore, no. I'm worthless here, now."

Arcade's brows furrowed. "Wait. What do you mean?"

"I gave it up, Arcade. I gave it all up."

* * *

All Might was angry. Long ago, Midoriya wouldn't have been able to even fathom being on the receiving end of such an emotion from his favorite hero, and yet here he was, taking it as calmly as possible.

"After everything…you decided to quit?" The hero was barely keeping it together. Not that Midoriya could really blame him. He did promise that he'd do whatever it took to win against All for One all those years ago. And now he was telling him that he decided that he wasn't the one who could do it. Still, he seemed to be missing the point.

"After everything, I decided that I was needed elsewhere. I know I'm not special, All Might, but thank you for making me feel that way anyway. I think you'll find that Mirio will be a good replacement. Better, in fact, than I ever could be."

All Might sighed. He wanted to be angry. But how could he? The decision ultimately came down to Midoriya, and that was it.

"So what will you do now?" the hero asked, trying to calm himself.

"Go back. Shigaraki knows about the wasteland, and he's going to keep using it as a weapon. If I can work from that end, and stay on that end, then he loses leverage. This is something that only I can do, All Might. But somebody else can use One for All. I promise, this isn't some decision that I've made on a whim."

All Might nodded. He understood from the beginning; he just didn't want to believe it. And if he was being honest, Mirio was his second pick anyway. In reality, he just didn't want to see Midoriya go back to that place. He didn't understand much about it, but all of the UA teachers heard about it from either Arcade or Aizawa. They understood enough about it to know that it was hell.

"As your teacher…I feel like I need to report you."

"I'm not telling you this as your student. I'm telling you this as a friend. And colleague. We probably won't see each other again, but we'll be fighting the same fight. Besides, what good is a kid at UA without a Quirk?"

"When are you leaving?"

"Tonight. Arcade said that there's a middle location where Shigaraki takes everything before releasing them onto the general public. I just need to sneak into there and I'm basically back in the Mojave."

All Might studied Midoriya's face. He was right; the Midoriya that he once knew was gone. This was someone else entirely. "Is this what you want?"

He laughed. "Since when do I ever get what I want? Let me be honest with you, All Might. I don't belong here anymore. Everyone knows that; it's not a secret. It's just time for me to let go of this dream of mine and face reality."

Rather reluctantly, the both of them said their goodbyes. All Might still was against his choice, but he didn't try to stop him any further than trying to vocally convince him to stay. When he saw that it wasn't going to work, he defeatedly let go of his student.

Midoriya closed the door to the lounge and breathed a sigh of relief. He half-expected All Might to be the hardest to convince to let him go.

"So. You're going back?" a voice startled him. He spun around to find himself face to face with a girl. Uraraka.

"You heard?" he asked, regaining his sense of calm.

She shrugged. "Enough to understand that you're going back to…that place. You're going to leave us for that?"

Midoriya sighed. He didn't really want to explain it to any of his classmates, because he knew that they'd ask too many questions. Now, however, it seemed as though Uraraka had backed him into a corner. "It's best for everyone. With me on this end, Shigaraki has leverage. Even if I just go over there and die, then it's more than worth it."

Out of nowhere, her hand struck his face. It wasn't like her to hurt others without warning, so it took him by surprise. "You're an idiot if you think that."

Midoriya chuckled. He couldn't help it, and it certainly wasn't appropriate, but the laughter escaped his lips nonetheless. "Sorry," he apologized. "You just took me by surprise. I'm sorry, Uraraka, but I'm serious about this. I have to take care of things over there. It's a hellhole, yeah, but that doesn't mean that there aren't people over there that don't need my help. And after everything I've done, I have a responsibility to take care of it. I don't have that here anymore."

Uraraka turned her face away, likely to avoid looking him in the eyes. "So that's it, then? You're leaving and you'll never see us again?"

Midoriya shrugged. "Probably. Time seems to move differently between these two worlds. If we ever did see each other again, the time gap might be more than just a few years. For either of us, really."

There was a heavy silence that hung between them. "Were you planning on telling us goodbye?" she asked softly.

Midoriya bit his lip. "No."

Now, it was her turn to chuckle. "You knew that we'd try to stop you, right? That's why?"

He put his hand on her shoulder. At his touch, she turned to look at him. Her eyes were brimming with angry tears. Midoriya's stomach dropped. Was that sadness he felt? "Goodbye, Uraraka."

He turned away, fearful of what she may say next, and began walking away.

"Goodbye," she whispered in reply.

* * *

He didn't expect her to be so reasonable. She still clutched him in her arms, tears running down her face, and yet she seemed to be expecting it.

"Izuku…I love you….be safe," Inko told her son between sobs. Honestly, he debated whether or not to tell her in person or to leave a note. Ultimately, he decided that he couldn't make his mother miss his last day on that Earth. She would have been devastated to receive a letter from her son, who she would never see again.

Midoriya clutched his mother back, relishing the last time he would ever see her, too. "I love you too, Mom," he muttered into her shoulder.

* * *

"You sure that this is the place?" Midoriya asked. He didn't doubt the look of the place, but just wanted to make sure that they weren't wasting time.

"I'm fairly sure. It looks about the same," Arcade confirmed.

Ed-E floated next to Midoriya. He gently patted the robot. "You ready to go back home?"

The robot replied with a few happy beeps. When he first repaired the eyebot, it was hard to decipher what it was saying. Now, it felt as though he were fluent in the eyebot's beeps.

Midoriya picked the lock on the outside of the warehouse, careful to not make any noise. Inside, he could hear voices. He wore his full armor, but even with that, Shigaraki could disintegrate it in seconds. He had to rely on a lot more than brawn to get him through.

"Look, what I'm saying is, my boys wanna go home. They got kids waitin' for 'em," someone said. He was speaking English, which was a dead giveaway for a wastelander.

"Your people were the one's who offered to fight. Now you want to go home?" Shigaraki replied in English, but with a thick accent. He must not have spoken much English before exploiting the wasteland.

"Listen, punk. We promised that we'd help you if we got to kill that Courier. But you don't even look close to it, so we're going to fuck off back home until you figure it out."

Midoriya peered around the corner. His plasma rifle was strapped to his back, but he hoped that he wouldn't need to use it. If they were going to open the portal, they needed to be quick about it. He could hide among the Jackals for a short period of time, but they'd notice him soon enough with his ranger gear. Luckily, there were a good number of them in the room to get lost in the crowd. As long as they could make it though the portal, they were free.

Shigaraki sighed. He probably recognized that in a room with a bunch of people with guns and grenades, he was at a bit of a disadvantage.

"Kurogiri, let them through," Shigaraki commanded the mist-like villain. Within seconds, the villain had conjured a portal, presumably to the Mojave.

Midoriya waited until at least ten of the members had gone through before he motioned for Arcade and Ed-E to follow him. They casually approached the portal alongside the rest, trying to be careful not to bring attention to themselves.

They made it to the threshold when someone opened their mouth. "Hey, wait!" a man next to him said, staring at him. Midoriya acted quick. He pushed Arcade back into the portal as he spun around, rifle in hand. Ed-E intrinsically understood what Midoriya wanted, as usual, and followed the medic into the unknown.

Without care, Midoirya fired upon the Jackals around him.

"Close it!" Shigaraki commanded the misty villain. Midoirya had moments to react. In that time, he smirked, held up his middle finger, and threw himself back into the portal.

He landed flat on his back against the sandy ground. There was nobody else around, save for Arcade and Ed-E. Presumably, they'd already taken care of whoever else had made it through the portal.

Midoirya remained sprawled out. His fingers grasped at the sand beneath his palms, feeling its texture. Above him, an ugly, orange sky stared back at him. It was threatening. But that was nothing compared to the smell that was entering his nostrils. Putrid scents of rotting flesh and decay. That wasn't even to mention the general stink of the place.

Midoriya closed his eyes and took it all in. A grin spread across his face. He was home.


End file.
